


Building

by BabyDoxies



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Daryl Dixon Smut, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, I'm Bad At Tagging, Rating May Change, Slow Burn, Slow Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-14 12:54:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 37,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29046456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BabyDoxies/pseuds/BabyDoxies
Summary: Hunting was something she was good at, something she could rely on.  But when she returned to her camp after a hunting spree, she realised her camp had been invaded by a group. They chase her down and eventually capture her, afraid that she belongs to a certain man namned Philip Blake.
Relationships: Daryl Dixon x OC - Relationship, Daryl Dixon x Original Female Character
Comments: 13
Kudos: 53





	1. Falling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story won't be completely canon. I'm going to do my own thing and hopefully, you'll enjoy it.

It's very easy to get distracted in a world where everything is a possible threat. Growling and gurgling was a noise that was normal by now. After a year of getting accustomed to living amongst the dead, it would be much more worrying not to hear a corpse. 

Getting distracted had never been hard for Robin. Her mind would easily wander off to something completely different from what she was doing. She simply couldn't help it. So when the world ended and she had to find food for herself she found something she was good at. 

The first time she picked up the bow it had felt strange in her hands. It felt too big and too heavy. But she kept it and trained every day even though it felt like a lost cause. It wasn't until she met a small group who actually knew what they were doing. A very kind man had helped her with the bow. 

And ever since then she always carried it with her.

~~~~

Aiming at the squirrel with the arrow, she breathed in, and slowly out. Food has been hard to come by lately. So when she saw the cute brown squirrel climbing up an oak she immediately got to her feet and gave it all her attention, blocking out the sounds around her, which has proven to be very dangerous multiple times. 

She let go of the arrow. It landed just below its tail and it scurried up the tree until she lost sight of it.

"Fucking shit piece of..." She muttered. The arrow was stuck in the tree and she had no energy to climb up and get it. 

Kicking the dirt below her, she turned around and looked for any new possible animals that would fit nicely on her dining table which was made out of an old mildewed plank. But there was nothing. Only faint growling in the distance. 

After contemplating for a while she decided to just head back to her camp. It was a shitty camp, to be honest. A tiny cabin and a campfire outside, but it had kept her fairly warm at night. And it shielded her from the rain.

The leaves on the trees were slowly changing colours from light green to bright orange. Autumn was coming. 

Robin followed the worn-down path towards her "home", pushing a few branches to the side. Then she heard it. Voices. Quite a lot of them too. She slowed down, walking as quietly as she could. 

She reached the end of the forest and into a clearing where her cabin was located. And people were walking in and out of it. 

Her heart was thumping and her breathing was quick. What the hell was she supposed to do now? Run? Attack? There were at least five people with weapons. 

"It seems like someone might be living here, dude." A very faint voice was heard from inside the cabin. 

She had her bow at the ready, feeling threatened. This wasn't good, not good at all. Then a man walked out of the filthy cabin, a woman following him shortly after. 

"There's nothing in here, just two water half-empty water bottles. Nothin' useful." The man was dressed as a sheriff. He carried a gun in a holster around his hips. 

Robin tried her best to figure out what to do that she had completely missed that someone had spotted her behind the tree. 

"There's someone there!" A voice echoed.

Her heart stopped for a second before her mind told her to run. Run and not to look back. She didn't think, she didn't look, she just ran. Just like she had done when she was little and the police were trying to catch her. 

She heard footsteps, fast ones. She had her bow in her hand and her quiver was bouncing furiously on her back. It all just went downhill... literally. Her right leg got stuck on the root of a tree and she rolled down a short but rather steep hill. She lost her grip on her weapon and dirt forced its way into her mouth. She shut her eyes tightly and waited for her body to stop rolling. And eventually, she did. 

She landed on her stomach, her breath knocked out of her. The ground was wet and mud had seeped into her jeans and leaves had infested her hair. 

She could hear someone sliding down the hill, and that gave her the energy to try and run again. But she didn't have time before someone gripped her leg.

"No!" She yelled, fear devouring her. "Let go of me! 

The person who got her was strong and took a hold of her shoulders, pushing her down further into the mud. 

"Just stop moving! I'm not going to hurt you."

It was a man, and he felt heavy against her back. It was terrifying. Was she going to die? The man who had he pinned down to the ground was talking to her but none of the words actually got to her. She kept struggling, hoping to break free. 

"Just stop it, man!" The man fought.

"Was it only tha' one?" It was a new voice came from atop the hill she had fallen down. 

"Yeah, didn't see no one else." He now had both of his hands on her wrists, pushing them down into the wet mud.

She writhed and turned and swore. It felt like it was over. Was this how she would meet her end? After all this shit? Robin didn't believe in happy endings, never have, but even she thought that this ended was shit. Suffocating in mud? No, no that was a true shit ending to a very shit story.

But suddenly, the weight on her body was gone, and she was being pulled up by the armpits. She gasped for air and tried to shake her hair out of her eyes. 

The man spun her around and checked her over. 

It was a dark and rather large man. He, too, was panting and he looked quite frustrated too. 

"You alone?" He asked, looking her in the eyes.

Now, Robin liked to think that she was a nice person. That what she did was done out of kindness even to people who might not deserve it. And she liked to think that she thought of her actions thoroughly before she acted them out. But every day she believed less in those thoughts. 

She spat him in the face, her saliva making a wet trail from his cheek to his jaw. If he had looked frustrated before, he looked proper angry now. 

"Jus' get her up here, bring her to Rick." The other man on the hill said. She didn't look at him though. She stared at the man who held her firmly by her shoulders and refused to let her eyes drop from his glare. 

In the end, Robin won. If it now was a staring contest which it definitely was, because he dragged her up the steep hill with quite a lot of difficulty. When they reached the top the other man was ready with a crossbow in his hands. 

Which reminded her- 

"My bow. I need my bow." She protested and tried to break free from the black man's death grip around her forearm. 

But neither of them cared. She got dragged along through the woods and couldn't a rats ass about it. She felt completely helpless, without a clue on what to do. Where were they taking her? 

They reached the clearing and the man with the crossbow walked ahead of them, reaching the guy dressed as a sheriff and said something Robin couldn't decipher. 

The sheriff, who she got strong leader vibes from, approached her. He looked her over and she wondered how she must look to them. Batshit insane most likely. Her jeans were torn, her shirt beneath her tank top reeked of corpse blood and her hair felt like a birds nest. Yeah, batshit insane is probably the best word to describe her right now. 

"You got a name?" Sheriff asked, his hands on his hips and looking smug. 

She already despised him. He just looked like a douche and the way his hair was actually pretty neat pissed her off to such degree that she had to look away. Who did he think he was, Mr perfect? 

When he didn't get an answer the man holding her asked him if they should bring her back to theirs. 

Oh, fucking awesome. A kidnapping was what this was then? 

The leader, she just assumed, looked thoughtful. "What is it, a two-hour walk from here? We can bring her. Perhaps get some answers while we're at it." 

"What?" Crossbow guy exclaimed, a crease in his brow forming. "We can't bring her back, we don' know who the hell she is. She might be one of em!" 

One of them. 

"That's what we have to figure out." The sheriff looked back at her, "And we will." 

~~~~

Her hands were tied behind her back, itching to break free from the restraints. She was pissed. They were taking her away from the house she had lived in for at least two months. This shit wasn't fair. It's their own damn fault they tried to ransack her almost empty cabin. 

The big man who had caught her was walking on her left side, while a brown-haired girl was walking to her right. She had a large gun in her hands, ready to shoot at whatever comes at them. 

The leader, who's name she found out is Rick, was walking at the front with the man with the crossbow, arguing about bringing her back to their place - wherever that now was. 

"We'll keep her in a cell, locked away from the rest. We can try to get answers. Answers that'll help us in the future. We need that, Daryl." 

Daryl. Crossbowman's name was Daryl. Good. 

"Answers won't mean shit if they're ready to attack while we're busy with her. Wastin' time on shit like this..." 

She stopped listening there. It was easy to be afraid. Especially in a world where dead people are walking around. But anger is what makes it so dangerous. It makes you careless and it drowns out other rational thoughts. And when you're careless in a world like this, you pay the price. A very expensive one. And it'll hurt like hell. 

She's seen it. She's seen it in this world and the world before. It isn't pretty. 

"Not much longer now." The brunette beside her spoke, looking directly ahead. 

And she was right, about ten minutes later they arrived. They arrived at a fucking prison. 

"Here?" It was the first thing Robin had said since they started walking. 

"Yes, here." 

They walked through a pair of gates and then she was ushered inside the prison. It smelled of damp rags and dirty socks. The walls were greying and peeling and there was dried blood splattered on the floor. 

Rick walked up to her and grabbed her tied hands. "I'll take her to her cell. She'll stay there for the rest of her stay. She'll stay in section C. And nobody else steps foot in there without me knowing bout', got it?" 

"Right on." 

He pushes her forward and down a long hallway until they make it to a large room. On the right side, there were a bunch of cells, only some of them still had doors. 

Robin nearly tripped as he shoved her in a cell. It had a bed with a very thin mattress. The upper corners of the walls had thick cobwebs and a couple of ants roamed the ground. 

She turned around when she heard the eerie sound of the metal door behind her close. She just stood there. Locking eyes with him. He didn't look angry, but he did look sceptical. 

"Don't try anythin'." He pointed a finger at her. "I'll come by tomorrow mornin', ask you some questions, alright?"

Robin, who once was a rather shy girl could feel the pure fury steaming inside of her. Robin, who was left alone in this world, now saw herself surrounded by strangers. And she was outraged. And anger makes you careless and gets you in tricky situations. 

"Go fuck yourself." She growled.


	2. Fresh air

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robin has a hard time trusting the gang. But one special offer makes her cave in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I just wanted to start off by saying thanks to everyone who took the time to read this. And also sorry for the typing mistakes in the previous chapter, that's what you get when you hate reading your own work lol.  
> And we get to see more of Daryl in this chapter ;) I promise more there will be more of Daryl in the chapters to come :D  
> I was also very surprised to find out that the governor's name is only spelt with one l. I don't know, it just seems wrong to me.

After the apocalypse befell, Robin was left entirely on her own for the first time in her life. She had to learn things she never even thought of. Like hunting, for example. Or killing walking corpses. And she got used to it.

You had to.

She was good with spontaneous changes. Her whole life she had to deal with those. Suddenly relocating, a new school, new sisters and brothers. If anything, she preferred spontaneous changes. It made life a little bit more interesting. 

She wouldn't say that the apocalypse was a good thing. It unmistakably wasn't. But it sure as hell made life more interesting. It has lead her to meet new people who she actually liked. The only negative part about it is that they died. 

Time to think about herself was also a big thing in her current lifestyle. A bit too much time, actually. It could be quite dreadful to think about yourself for so long. It wasn't something she enjoyed, really.

But now, when she was locked in a cell like an animal in a cage, she had all the time in the world to think. Not just about herself, but about how she would get out, and what she would do if she did get out. Would she try to kill them? It seems like a whole community. 

Robin couldn't see all the people, but she could hear them. There was a lot of voices.

When she'd arrived, only a few couple of folks had been outside. It had seemed like they were the only ones occupying the prison. Which now, proved to be incorrect. 

It was awfully boring in the cell. Especially when only your dark and anxious thoughts are flying around inside your head - like a never-ending buzzing. So when she heard footsteps she immediately got up from her spot on the floor but still letting her back push against the wall. 

Rick, Daryl and an old man arrived at the cell's door. 

The old white-haired man had an impressive beard growing and his clothes looked surprisingly clean. He actually looked kind of nice. Reminded her of her old grandpa - a sweet man. 

"We brought Hershel with us," Rick motioned towards the elderly man on his right. "He can have a look at your arm after you've answered an important question for us."

Like hell. 

She had a scratch, probably from when she fell down that fucking hill. It didn't hurt too much.

Hershel took a step forward, eyeing Robin through the door. "It definitely isn't broken. So it's no rushin' to get it taken care of."

Robin, still having her back pressed firmly onto the wall behind her, glared at the three men. She wanted to yell at them and tell them that they can fuck each other instead. But she held her breath and dug her heel harder into the ground.

"I have to know somethin', and I'm hoping that you can provide an answer for me," Rick began, "If not, then I can not let you go, you understand?" 

She swallowed, hard. The debate between wanting to know what was so important to this group and just wanting to be quiet to fuck with them was a tough one. "What?" 

The sheriff smiled, a very fake one, and said, "Do you know a Philip? Philip Blake, to make it easier for you."

Shithead. 

It was a guy that they were so worried about. A dude named Philip. She didn't know him, never heard of him. She thought that it was only her left in this world, so the fact that she got taken against her will by other people was a big enough shock for her. 

Robin shook her head, "No. Don't know him." She almost whispered. No need to be generous. 

"How the fuck we supposed to know if she tellin' us the truth now, huh?" Daryl, who had been quiet throughout this entire stale conversation spoke. 

"I am telling you the truth, dick." She fired back, her mouth speaking on its own accord. Or it was just her mind wanting her to fuck up. 

Probably the latter.

Daryl looked at her and was just about to spit something back at her before Hershel spoke over him, "She answered your question, Rick. You can ask more later when I've taken a look at her arm." 

"I don't want you to look at my fucking arm." Robin caterwauled, her eyes narrowing. 

"That's fine," he said, raising his hands, "just don't come to me when it's infected."

Robin looked at her arm, it had bled through her shirt, now leaving a patch of dried blood that became surprisingly itchy. It didn't hurt, it was just a bit sore and she had brushed off most of the dirt that had been stuck in within the wound. Perhaps she should let the man take a look at it and save her attitude for later. It had after all been a long time since a real doctor took a look at her.

She peered around the room, refusing to look at the man who offered his help, "Okay, do it, then." 

Rick nodded to Daryl who for some reason carried the keys to her cell, and he hesitantly unlocked the door. 

What, did he think she would be stupid enough to try and take them on all at once? He looked and acted like a real asshole. She fucking hated him. 

He turned the keys inside the lock and opened the door to let the doctor inside. At first, he looked at her arm from afar. Making her extremely conscious of herself. Of how she looked and smelled, for some odd reason. Things like that didn't matter anymore. Or so she thought. Because when he motioned for her to sit on the bed and got closer to her, she self-consciously crossed her arms around her chest, wishing for him to back off. 

"It doesn't hurt when you move it?" He asked, looking to seek eye-contact with her. 

"No." 

"Can I have a closer look?" 

Robin looked at him, wondering if she should allow him. There wasn't a reason for her not to let him. He seemed fine and genuinely concerned when it came to her minimal injury. So she nodded and tensed when he took a hold of her arm and clasped gently around the sore area. 

He noticed her slight wince and asked her if it was okay if he could disinfect it. 

She shrugged, not looking at him. "Do whatever." 

Hershel straightened up with a heavy sigh, "Can you hand me the bottle in the cell next door, please." 

Rick got him a towel and the bottle he requested from the cell next to Robins. The doctor thanked him and grabbed the items from the sheriff's hands. 

"Now, this is gonna sting, alright?" 

She nodded, just wanting to get it over with. Pain is something that this world provided her daily for free. 

It did sting when he applied the disinfectant, it stung like a motherfucker. She inhaled through gritted teeth and squeezed her thigh. He really wasn't lying. 

"There, all done." Hershel informed, getting ready to leave the cell. To leave her all alone again.

Robin asked a question that she had pondered on since he started examining her. "How long have you been a doctor for?" She asked hastily. 

Hershel chortled, shaking his head. "Oh, I'm no doctor. I'm an old veterinarian."

Oh.

He exited the cell and Daryl locked it up again. As he locked it, he watched her get up from the bed, looking indecisive. He then pocketed the keys and moved to stand beside Rick, now refusing to meet her eyes again. 

"Daryl will bring you some food later. You need somethin' to eat if you're going to help us." Rick declared, a determined look in his eye. 

Robin inched closer to the door, sneering at him. "What makes you think I want to help you?" 

"Well, if you ever wanna feel the sunlight on your skin again you better cooperate." He countered, leaving thereafter. Shortly followed by Hershel. walking rather clumsily. 

Daryl shifted his weight, looking like he wanted to say something. Robin waited for him to do so, but he, too, left her. 

Left her all alone with those dull thoughts again. 

~~~~

She laid on the bed the cell contained. It was a thin mattress that made her back ache and the pillow looked so musty even Robin didn't dare lay her head on it.

Her scalp itched so much she was afraid she'd break the skin. Her black hair looked more like a mop than actual human hair. Showering was just something that she didn't do anymore. It didn't matter as she kept on killing corpses and her clothes got drenched in guts and blood. But she did miss hot water that just instantly made you feel better.

She wondered if they have clean water here. Or if they just find a lake like she used to do. Did they farm their own food or did they hunt? 

Thinking about food made her stomach growl. She laid her hand on her belly and rubbed it soothingly. Daryl was supposed to bring her food. But when was the question. She hasn't eaten a good meal since last week. The only thing she managed to find was canned fruit when she went through an old deserted house. 

She wouldn't complain if they gave her a glass of water either. She would do anything for some cold, fresh water right now. It was almost painful. 

As on cue, she heard someone approaching her cell. She sat up but didn't leave the bed. 

It was Daryl with a tray of food. She couldn't see what it was but it didn't matter either way. She would practically eat anything they gave her. But no water. She didn't know if it was selfish of her to think that she deserved some water after one of their biggest guys chased her through a forest.

"It's potatoes and a slab of deer meat." He announced, setting the tray down onto the floor as he opened the cell. She stood up which caught his attention. "Don't do nothin' stupid, girl." 

"Like what? Knock you?" Robin ribbed. She didn't have any weapons to hurt him with. They left her bow out in the woods. 

He shot her a glare and picked up the tray of food and set it down on the end of the bed for her. She remained still by the wall, waiting for him to leave so she could devour the meal in under one minute. 

"You best eat it. You look like you haven't eaten in days." He said, turning to her. 

Robin frowned. "It's been hard to find anything to eat lately." She hissed at him. She knew he was right, but still, quite a dick thing to say. 

"Then you haven't been lookin' at the right spots." Daryl said, pointing at the piece of meat on her tray. "Found that yesterday jus' outside of here." 

She didn't know if he meant to piss her off. But he did. She was starving and dehydrated. She had been stripped of her beloved bow and been dragged away from her home by a group of strangers. Did he think this was the right time to lecture her on how to hunt?

"Well then, good for you. Am I allowed to eat now?" She huffed.

He shrugged coolly. "Course, better be well fed till we come back for more answers." 

"I don't know anything about your whole situation, okay? I don't know that guy." She tried to get her point across, wanting him to believe her. But it felt like he had a wall up to block out any more of her words because in under a second he was outside and locking the cell again. 

Robin ran up and grabbed the metal bars of the door. "Please! You have to believe me!" But he was already gone and out of sight. She banged her hands on the door and shouted out a bunch of swears, hoping that someone would hear her and understand that she truly didn't know anything. 

But Robin knew that shouting profanities into the air would get her absolutely nowhere. That has never worked. Definitely didn't work in school - she learned that calling your teacher a cheap slut resulted in suspension. 

So after feeling bad for herself she turned around and gawked at the food in front of her, suddenly not so hungry anymore. She had such an urge just to flip the tray upside down to show them that they can't control her - that she wouldn't do anything they asked of her. But the better part of her got to her first. Even though most of her hunger had vanished, she inhaled the food as quickly as you could blink.

She didn't even stop to try and enjoy they savoury juice that the slab of meat leaked, or the mushy potatoes that felt soft in her mouth. No, she just swallowed it down and burped. 

It didn't take long for her stomach to react to the sudden food that had been devoured so quickly. She became bloated and got cramps that convinced her to lay down on the awful excuse of a bed again. 

She just couldn't help it. She couldn't help the tears started to flow down her cheeks. Everything just hit her like a bomb. She was stuck and felt more alone than she had when she was in her own little cabin. It felt like she couldn't move and her breathing quickened to the point where it felt like she would pass out. 

Everything was a bit too much just then. But its something that has to happen. Her mom always told her that letting your feelings out would prevent you from having a mental breakdown every day. It actually was a useful tip. It's just that not everyone enjoyed hearing Robin throw a massive fit. 

Tiredness hit her like a brick. Her eyes felt heavy and her breathing slowed down to a more even pace. Her head now pounding from the intense breakdown. She rolled over onto her side, facing the wall. Using her hands as a pillow. It didn't take long for her to fall asleep.

~~~~

"Hey." A rattling sound echoed. "Hey, wake up." 

Robin woke up with a start, ready to defend herself. It was Rick and Daryl again. 

"You feel better after some food?" Rick asked her, eyeing her up and down.

She didn't answer, letting him determine if she looked better than before. Which she probably didn't.

The former sheriff stood right outside the cell with the key in his hand, fiddling with it. "Do you want to go outside?" 

Her mind immediately cleared up. The thought of getting fresh air was an amazing thought. After being stuck in this damp and musky cell, fresh air was something she could only dream of. 

She stood up, almost tripping over her own foot. "Yeah, yeah I do." She tried not to sound too eager. Not wanting them to see her cave in to their requests.

"Good, just answer this one question for me, and I'll let you outside for a few minutes." 

Shit. Another god damn question. She didn't know anything. There went her chance at feeling the wind in her hair.

"What's your name?" Rick questioned. 

Was- was that it? Her name? Was that all they wanted to know? 

She watched them wearily. "Robin. Robin Harmon." 

Rick and Daryl eyed each other, nodding. Daryl suddenly walking up to the door. He wore his crossbow on his back which reminded her of her old bow. 

"We gon' let you out. But if you try anythin', we'll put your ass right in here again." Daryl said, his voice steady. He looked like he hated her as much as she hated him. 

Robin agreed, wanting nothing more than to run outside and roll in the grass. "Yeah, I got it." 

Rick unbarred the door for Daryl who motioned for her to leave the cell she'd been stuck in for hours. She tried hard not to just run and try to find an escape. She knew she had to plan it first. She couldn't blow it.

Daryl pushed her on the back with his crossbow and ushered her forward down the hall Rick had to lead her through when he locked her in for the first time. He then told her to turn right, leading them to a door. 

He walked up to it, pushing her lightly to the side. He turned the knob and pushed it open, letting her outside first.

It was more than great to get a taste of frisk, crispy air. She got a good view of the place too. There was, in fact, a farming area she had missed when she first got here. And to her surprise, there was a small enclosure with four pigs roaming inside it. There were multiple watchtowers and they had a few people with weapons walking along the fence to make sure no corpses tear it down.

"It's nice." Robin managed to say, wanting to prove she was grateful in some way, but having a hard time showing it.

She saw him looking at her while she took in the place. It made her shy - and she hated it. 

"It's kept us safe. All tha' matters." He gruffed, looking away from her.

She nodded in response, agreeing with him. As long as it keeps you safe it doesn't matter if it looks nice or not. She wanted to ask how many people lived in the prison but she was afraid she would set off some sort of alarm within him. So she kept her mouth shut and closed her eyes, enjoying the breeze that washed over her. 

She inhaled, wanting to remember it when she returns to her cell. She eventually opened her eyes and found that Daryl was looking at her, again. He instantly looked away, and she was certain she saw a blush spreading across his cheeks. 

It made her smile. She hated him, but it made her smile. 

"It's time to go inside, I got better things to do than to stand around here all day." He opened the door and held it open for her.

"I bet you do." She said as she walked past him and into the prison once again.


	3. Vote

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A vote takes place that can have a huge impact on her current state of mind. And while she's at it, she tries to get through to a certain man - only to find out he's hard to get to know.

"You're Robin?" 

She turned around at the sound of her name, seeing a boy around the age of eleven to twelve. He wore a dirty hat on top of his mop of dark brown hair. 

She estimated she's been in this cell for two days now and has only seen three people to whom she actually spoke to. 

"Yeah, I am." She replied, unsure of how this kid got in here without being noticed. 

He gaped at her for a good moment, furrowing his eyebrows. "Do you know the governor?"

Robin looked at him, confused by his sudden straightforwardness. She got closer to where he was standing, and he backed away a few steps, clearly on the outlook for her to reach out to grab him through the door. 

"Is that the guy they asked me about before? The - the- uh - Philip Blake, that guy. Is that the governor you're talking about?" 

The kid nodded slowly, uncertain if he should tell her. That got her thinking again. Who was this kid? Why was he in here? 

"You got a name, kid?" 

He stood about five feet away from the cell door. It was when she got closer that she realised he got a gun in a holster. It irked her. Seeing a kid with a gun like that. But she would probably give her kid a gun too for their own safety. 

Seeing that she noticed his gun, he placed his hand around it which made Robin look back up at him. Now he looked freaked out. Like he just realised he wasn't allowed in here. She could tell he tried to push that feeling away.

"Carl." 

"Hi, Carl." 

She wanted to ask him if he could find the key, to free her. But she could tell that Carl was smart. He wouldn't. Perhaps there was a much more feeble-minded child that roamed the halls that could release her. 

"Do you need anything?" He asked, catching her off guard. He was sincere and his voice was sweet. 

Of course, her first thought was to get the key, again. But she needed something to settle her thirst. "Water?" She asked, lamely. 

He bowed his head, "I think I can get that for you. Wait here." She could see the moment he realised what he just said, but he just shook his head and left. 

She watched him as far as she could from her inclosure. When he was out of sight, she glided down the wall and brought her knees up to her chest, hugging them. 

Hugging your knees was an effective way of comforting yourself, Robin learnt from a young age. It was beneficial after you got a scolding from your stepdad about disrespecting your mother, or just losing a dollar bill. You gave yourself the warmth you needed to calm yourself. You just needed yourself. And being by yourself was quite easy for her if it was her choice. 

She could have the power to say that she wanted to be left alone and would prefer it that way. But if she was forced to be alone, like now, she hated it. She hated not having someone right now. It almost hurt to think about when her mom used to hug her. 

Physical contact has been very limited these days. Sex, obviously being one of them, but what she really craved was a hug. Someone who would just hold her and give some of their warmth to her. 

She just wanted someone to share something with her. 

"Hey, I couldn't get much but I did manage to get a hold of this protein bar." He was about to hand her the things by sticking his hands inside the cell, but changed his mind and threw the half-empty water bottle and the protein bar inside. "It's probably stale and flavourless. But it's better than nothing nowadays." 

Picking up the water bottle she almost got teary-eyed. This kid, who she didn't know, got this for her. Perhaps it was the desperation of some sort of liquid that made her so unstable and emotional, now when she thought about it.

She unscrewed the bottlecap and brought the bottle to her lips, glugging down the water. It did wonders for her throat already. 

When she'd emptied it, she exhaled a long breath, just enjoying the feeling of her less dry throat. "Thank you. Thank you so much." Robin almost whispered. 

"It's okay. I feel bad that they keep you in here." He said, eyeing her. "Especially when you're not one of them." 

One of them meaning one of the governors people. She wondered how many people this Philip guy had. The way they talked about him they were obviously afraid of him. And probably for a good reason, too.

"How do you know I'm not one of them?" She just had to ask. The way he'd said it, he just seemed so sure about it.

He shrugged, putting his hand over his gun again. "I can just tell, you know? A feeling." 

Robin put the bottle down on the floor and then sat down on the bed. "It'd be nice if Rick would think so, too. He's the leader around here, isn't he?" 

Carl blinked at her, obviously wanting to say something. he opened and closed his mouth a couple of times. Then he finally spoke, having chosen the right words, "Rick is my dad." Robin raised her eyebrows, "And yes, he's the leader, I guess." 

She was quiet for a moment. Thinking if this could favour her in some way. Could he actually help her? Was he her chance at getting out of here? "Carl, has your dad told you anything about me?" She asked, putting on a smile after she saw him falter. 

He looked towards the exit of the section and Robin cursed on the inside. She scared him off. 

"Just- just make him trust you." He said then walked off.

Robin shot up from the bed and tried talking to him. "Hey! Carl! Don't leave, please!" 

The feeling she felt after his footsteps faded was awful. She was truly and ever-loving fucked.

~~~~

Hearing the people outside talk only made her yearn for someone to be with. It had been hours since Carl came around and she's already eaten the protein bar. It was as he said: stale and totally flavourless.

She played with the hem of her shirt, mindlessly thinking about what she would do first when she managed to escape this hell-hole. She probably couldn't do much if there were as many people as she thought there were. That would just be suicide.

"You up?" It was Rick's voice.

Robin stood up and sneered at him. Fucking jackass. 

He dug in his pocket for a second before pulling out the key and showing it off to her. "We have a guest who can tell us if you're really tellin' the truth or not." He unlocked the door. "So I want you to meet her."

She stood completely still. What the hell was going on? Was this some sort of trick and they just end up killing her instead, because it unmistakably feels like it. Rick moved aside at the door, clearly wanting her to start moving. 

Exiting the cell, he then asked her to turn around and hold her hands behind her back. She glared at him before turning around and letting him handcuff her. If that's what it takes for him to trust her - and possibly meet this person who can hopefully clear her name.

She could be free.

They walked through the very same hallway but this time continued through another section- section B. There seemed to be people living there. There were blankets and opened cans of food. There were even a pack of diapers at the table that was placed in the middle of the room.

But he quickly grabbed a hold of her and forced her legs to keep moving forward. Eventually, they arrived. The room was filled with people. People she hasn't met before. Among the strangers, she found Hershel, Daryl and the guy who had chased her down. He didn't look as terrifying now as he did then. 

They were all studying at her and it made her extremely uncomfortable. Then a blonde woman walked up to her and Rick, a questioning look in her eye.

"Is this the girl?" She asked him, looking from Robin to Rick.

He nodded and told her how they'd find her, worrying that she'd be one of his people - using her as a spy. It made Robin angry. Angry that she'd gotten in this position for no apparent reason. The whole situation sucked.

"I caught her." The big, black man stood up from the chair he sat on and raised his hand a bit. "She was running for no reason, making everyone wonder why she was would be in such a hurry to get away." 

"You were at my house, ransacking it. Of course, I'd be fucking scared." She spat back, her anger quickly evolving into fury.

Rick motioned for the man to sit back down again. Then he looked back at the woman. "Andrea, do you recognise her?"

The blonde made eye-contact with Robin. She hoped the stranger could truly see that she wasn't a part of any funny businesses with the governor. If there was a god, Robin really hoped he was on her side today.

"I don't recognise her, no. But there's lots of people at Woodbury so I can't completely cross her off the list." She explained, looking at Rick while she talked.

"I'm not from that god damn place! Please, please, I don't know anything." Robin looked around the room, at the different people as she pleaded with them to understand. She made eye-contact with Hershel, the brown-haired girl she met at the start, another blonde girl and lastly Daryl. 

She looked at Daryl, wishing for him to see that she was honest. That her words were true. That they would at least grant her the freedom to be outside the cell. 

He met her eyes, seemingly reading her. She thought she got through to him - but then that wall shot right back up. He looked away and decided that his worn boots were much more interesting than her. 

It pissed her off.

"We don't know if she's one of them." An Asian guy spoke from the corner of the room, "But we can't keep her locked up forever." 

Robins's heart leapt at the statement. That was all she was asking for at the moment. To not be treated like an animal.

"We can't trust her. We have children around here." Rick argued, talking to the entire room. 

"We took you in." A small voice from beside Hershel addressed. She was a small woman with the blondest hair and her eyes were soft. "We took you in without knowing who you were." 

She didn't know what the girl was talking about, but it seemed to have an impact on Rick. Because he went quiet and cast his eyes on the floor, a crease forming between his eyebrows - thinking.

It seemed like minutes before anyone spoke even though it was probably just a few seconds. 

Hershel stood up with the help of the table for support. "How 'bout we take a vote?" He looked around the room, seeing people agreeing with him. "Is that alright with you, Rick?" 

The sheriff behind Robin hesitated before he answered, "Let's vote. It'll be fair and it'll be square. We can either vote on to keep Robin," He gestured to her, "in the cell, and give her regular meals until she can prove that she ain't a part of Woodbury - something that I'm going to have to make sure gets done." 

The people in the room were definitely not the only ones in the prison, but it seemed as if they were the 'higher-ups'. that they had more say in this than the other 'regular' citizens did. She wondered how that comes. 

"And then we vote on to let her leave the cell and have space to go outside and to not be locked in anymore." He ended his speech. 

Robin looked around the room to see if she could sense how the people would vote. But that proved to be impossible as Rick then started to lead her out of the room.

"I- Where are we going?" She demanded, doubtful about what was happening. Too much was going on inside of her brain. Her mother used to say that she had a small mind and couldn't handle more than one thing at a time. She used to take that as an insult - but as she grew older she realised her mother had been right all along.

Rick continued to shove her down the hallway, towards her cell. "You can't be there while we're voting. It'll mess with them." 

He didn't push her into the cell this time, he just opened the door for her and gestured for her to step inside. Which she hesitantly did. Back in the gloomy ass cell. 

He locked the door behind her, but before he could leave she was quick to turn around and grab ahold of the metal bars. 

"Please, I understand that you can't trust me, I do. But I can't keep on staying in here. I'm going crazy." 

He didn't say anything and just left her, clinging on to the bars. It was probably the only thing keeping her standing at this point. 

She had meant every word she said to him. She did understand why they couldn't trust her - or she didn't know everything or the whole story but she knew that in the state that the world is currently in, you can't really trust anyone. And it made it really hard to live and to trust.

And trust is what gets you going these days.

~~~~ 

She could swear that she felt her mind going crazy by the second. How long can it take to fucking vote? Just stick your arm up in the air, not that hard. 

Sitting on the very edge of her bed, she kept her leg bouncing. trying to focus on keeping it bouncing. An annoying habit she had acquired when she developed anxiety at the ripe age of ten. 

She heard faint voices becoming clearer. This was it. Perhaps this is what it felt like for men who had to wait outside for their baby to be born. 

Rick and Daryl appeared. Both men wore a vacant expression. Not very rare for Daryl, though. The few times she's seen him he's been wearing that same empty expression on his face. 

Standing up, she let her arms hang uselessly. "So?" 

The leader put his hands on his hips and looked at the floor. "The vote was pretty clear." He looked back up at her, sensing that she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. So he took the key from his pocket and dangled it in front of her. "You'll be able to go leave your cell whenever, and you're gonna help us with work outside." 

And for the first time since she's arrived, Robin smiled. A huge, genuine smile. She ran a hand through her tangled hair. "Thank you." 

Rick opened the door and then tossed the key to her, showing her that he didn't have full control over her anymore. And for that, she thanked the Lord.

"Just remember, do anything stupid and we'll take everything away right again." He warned, but gave her a small smile himself.

She nodded profusely and put the key away in the back pocket of her ragged jeans. Rick left shortly after, wishing her a good night. But Daryl stayed back, explaining to Rick that he had to grab something in section D. 

Robin stepped out of the cell and landed by Daryl. He looked well hidden under his bangs. 

"You gon' work with the crops. Farmin' and whatnot." He addressed, just peeking at her through his hair. 

She smiled a little, feeling her mood instantly lighten up. "I'm not very good at keeping plants alive, but I'll do my best." 

He grunted and looked at his hands, picking at the dirt under his short fingernails. "You gon' be good for the night?" 

Robin looked back at her cell, hating it. But she did technically have everything she needed. "Yeah, I'm gonna be fine. I've slept in that bed before, you know." She couldn't help it, she just had to tease him. He seemed so serious at all times. 

"Good." He said, nodding in the direction of the hallway. "Good nigh'." He walked away, almost like he was in a hurry to get out of there.

"Hey, Daryl?" She called out, and for the first time, someone actually turned around and waited for her to continue. "Did you vote for me being outside of my cell?" 

He looked awkward like he had been caught with his hand in a cookie jar. It's weird, how he acts. Robin found herself a bit weird - strange if you will. But Daryl didn't seem weird. He just seemed very shy or reserved. It made it hard for her to try and talk to him. Like now, when she'd just gotten him to stay a little while longer to listen to her, only for him to ignore her question and leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo, another chapter. Now, this is where I'm going to have fun. Now when Robin is a bit freer, I have more room to explore her Daryl's relationship. And of course, let her get to know the people among her.


	4. Fun

She wiped the sweat from her brow with her dirty hands. The sun was gazing down at them and creating such heat it was almost unbearable. Working outside in such heat was very tiring. She's been planting potatoes on the small but growing farm they had going. 

It was lovely to be outside, working. So she didn't complain. She worked with another girl named Beth. She was kind towards Robin, something the other people haven't been. They didn't talk while they worked but before they started planting Beth kindly explained how to do it properly. 

Just that small conversation with Beth had made her entire day. It was refreshing. She has a sister, Maggie, who was nice too but she didn't talk too much. Robin was okay with that, she didn't want to waste her time getting to know everyone if she's going to get out of here.

Because she will.

She'll get out of here eventually. While working on the crops she's been looking around to see if she can see any weak spots - if she can figure out which place is the least guarded. And even though she liked being surrounded by other people, people she doesn't know, she would still use violence if it meant she's getting the fuck out of here.

"I think we're done here for now." Beth announced, straightened her back. Her forehead was glossy and her hair was damp.

Robin nodded, "What am I supposed to do now?" She asked, feeling like a child asking for every direction.

"Well, I'm going to check up on Judith. If you want you can go into that little 'garage' there and see if there's any water." She pointed towards what looked like something that used to be a garage.

"Thank you." She said, quietly. And manoeuvred over the crops, making sure not to trample any of them. 

People were curious. And Robin understood them. She was curious herself. But the whole 'looking at her' part made her extremely uncomfortable. She never liked being watched. It felt like people could see right through her at times. It made her paranoid. And she wasn't much to look at, either. 

The garage looked gloomy and the door was missing. There was a broken window on it's left side, glass scattered on the grass. She was ready to go in when a heavy clanking noise came from inside it. It caught her off guard, which she hated. She was used to sudden noises, she had to be. 

She pondered it if she should go in. She didn't want some person to ask her idiotic question about who she is or where she's from. 

Sometimes, Robin really thinks that she hates herself. That she sets herself up for failure. Forcing herself into conversations she doesn't want to be in. Sleeping with guys she doesn't want to. Saying things without thinking it through. And it all ends the same: shame and frustration.

So she enters the garage, trying not to overthink everything. It was roomy and multiple sets of tools hanged on the wall. There was a white car parked and behind there was a man working on a bike. 

She looked around for the water Beth had told her about, but it seemed to be completely vacant of water. It was hot in here, the air was clammy. 

"Excuse me, you got any water in here?" She asked the man who was behind the bike.

He stood up and she saw who it was. It was Daryl, he had black smudges on his face and his hair was wet with what she assumed was sweat. He wore his usual black shirt but without his vest this time.

When he saw her his eyes widened for a second. "Behind the car. Over here." He said and pointed to the corner of the room where multiple bottles were stacked. She counted ten. 

She murmured thanks and trotted over there to pick up one of the bottles. Drinking half of the bottle, she sighed a content sigh. It was the best thing you could drink on a hot day like this. 

Pushing the hair out of her face she looked over at what Daryl was doing. Perhaps it was the energy that the water gave her or it was out of pure curiosity because she had to ask what he was doing. 

He looked up at her, surprised at her question. "Sonuva bitch won' start." He grunted as he continued to tinker with it. 

She walked closer to him, deciding if she should tell him about her father. It was strange how she worked, she thought to herself. One second she's a nervous nelly and then the other she's trying to work up the courage to tell a complete stranger about her father. 

Daryl noticed her. He noticed her just standing there looking at him, lost in her thoughts. It didn't seem as if he liked being looked at either. "What're you lookin' at, girl?" 

Robin, startled out of her thoughts, shook her head and waved a dismissive hand at him. She tried to act as if she wasn't offended by his comment. It sounded degrading to her. "I was just thinking about how my dad liked to tinker with cars and other vehicles. It was his hobby, I guess." 

He looked at her like she had just said something outrageous. And for a second Robin thought she'd messed up by telling him something like that. Like she's comparing him to her father. 

"Issa good distraction. Just fuckin' annoyin' when it won' start." He sounded troubled as he continued to work on his motorcycle. His eyes were narrowed in concentration and his tongue was just slightly peeking out at the corner of his mouth. 

She couldn't help but think that he looked good. It was a dumb thought. But she couldn't do anything about it. That was that. 

"Is there anything I can do to help?" She got even closer to him. Even she was surprised by the question. Offering help to a person who disliked her. Offer help to a person she disliked.

He straightened up and looked at her, backing away, his eyes suddenly filled with... anger? "Get outta here. You're supposed to be out helpin' them." Robin was caught off-guard by his sudden change in emotion. "If you don' want me tellin' Rick that your slackin' you better get ya ass outta here."

Now, she knew that controlling her feelings has always been tough. But Daryl's response to her offering him help after his people snatched her up and dragged her off to a low-life prison made her angry. And when you get angry you get careless. 

"You know what," she sneered at him, "forget what I said. I don't want to help your saggy ass with shit like this." She waved a hand in his face, which he flinched to. She would've felt bad about it, but now when she was pissed, no other feeling could get to her. She turned around and stalked off to the exit. But before she left she turned around to face him again, fuming. "By the way, I like what you've done to your hair. How do you get it to come out of the nostrils like that? All long and thick, you know?" 

He looked taken aback. Like he hadn't expected for her to lash out like this. And to be honest, she hadn't expected it either. She just can't control it. 

Before he could answer she left. She ignored people looking at her, trying hard not to flip them off, and stalked off to the entrance of the prison. She reached the door that led her inside the gross building but just couldn't bring herself to open it. Going to her cell after she's been begging and lusting to be outside it felt incredibly stupid to do so.

"Are you doing okay?" 

Robin looked over her shoulder to find an Asian man peering at her. 

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks." She muttered.

The man reached his hand out for her, "Glenn."

Her hands were covered with dirt and filth but she shook his hand anyway. "Robin. Although, I guess you already knew that." She said sheepishly. 

Glenn chuckled lightly and bowed his head. "Yes, actually. You've been a big talk around here lately." 

Robin's face faltered a second before resuming her shy smile. "I figured. Who wouldn't want to talk about the girl whom they took against her will." She rambled, unable to stop herself. She knew Glenn wasn't at fault, but she needed to say it to someone, and that someone happened to be Glenn. 

Poor fucker.

He seemed embarrassed and looked over the grass plains, rubbing his neck. "Well, you're not wrong." 

Her mood lightened slightly and she couldn't help but snort. She liked his honesty. He seemed fun. Which was something she needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, a short chapter :) It's been three days since I posted which I apologise for, I have a test coming up sooo... can't do much about that. Another chapter is coming within 1-2 days so stay tuned for that !   
> I want to make it clear that Robin has a hard time controlling her emotions and that even the slightest thing can make her snap - but I promise that that will get better as the story goes. Can't really blame her for being upset, can we now ;)


	5. Stories.

"You know, he isn't all that bad," Glenn said as he took a sip from his water bottle. 

They sat a bench along the walls of the prison outside, hiding in the shade from the sun. It's slowly lowering beyond the horizon and the sky is bright pink with a vibrant mix of orange and red. 

Robin scoffed, "He dragged me away from my house, Glenn. Can't help but feel a little... hatred towards him." 

"Rick has saved this entire group multiple times." He shrugged, "I'm grateful for him." 

"A group can't survive where only one person is a hero. All of you must have fought together - not just Ricky." 

Glenn rolled his eyes at her, a small smile creeping at his lips. "Obviously we've all done work. They once lowered me down into a well with a swollen walker." He looked thoughtful, looking over the people still working.

"What now?" Robin asked.

He waved his hand dismissively at her, "Doesn't matter. We've survived as a group. That's all that matters."

She knew that if you're with a group, it always ends up hurting. You lose someone. You always do. She had been content with her last group, it had been the only people she's been with since the apocalypse. But it ended up hurting. More than she had thought. 

She lowered her gaze and rolled her thumbs to have something to do. "You must've lost people. It isn't easy to keep a group together." 

Glenn nodded his head solemnly, sniffing awkwardly. "We have. We've lost a lot of people. Maggie lived with her people on a farm before, they died when the house burnt down." 

Robin raised her eyebrows. It was shocking that he would share something like this to her. And it was shocking because you could never tell what someone's been through by just looking at them. Maggie was a tough bird and Beth was tough too, just in another sense. 

"Must've been hard. No fun when shit goes downhill." She faltered, upset with his and her own story about loss. 

He itched the back of his head, "You have to move on, somehow. Just look at Rick and Daryl." 

She tilted her head, interested in learning more about Daryl and Rick's story. But Glenn suddenly looked nervous, like he regretted saying anything at all. 

She nudged his shoulder, urging him to keep talking. "Come on, don't leave me hanging." 

"Well - I don't - I just- It's not my story to tell." He suddenly spat out.

"You told me about Maggie." 

"Yeah well... She's you know..."

"Your girlie?" 

Glenn blushed and shook his head, chuckling. "Girlie?" 

Robin couldn't help but laugh a little herself. "I've seen it. How you look at her and how she looks at you." 

"How she looks at me?" He whispered as if everyone could hear them.

Glaring at him, she scoffed, "Are you blind?" 

He seemed content with her answer as he continued to smile like a dork. She did want to hear Rick's and Daryl's story, but she guessed he was right. It wasn't his story to tell. She wouldn't want anyone telling her story to a stranger. 

Her story was her's to share if she wanted. And she respected Glenn for not just telling her. She could see that he cared for his people. He reminded her of someone from her old group - a sweet but kind of dorky guy who can't read the signals. 

But the fact that Glenn wasn't him, hurt. It hurt bad. 

Before all this shit happened, before dead people started walking, she never thought about love. Never. And of course, when shit hits the fan, she decides to fall for someone. 

And she fell hard. 

And the moment he got bit, the moment he had to be put down like a dog, she knew that love wasn't for her. It hurt too much. And she didn't like pain. 

"Robin?" Glenn waved a hand in front of her face. She swatted it away and grimaced at him.

"The fuck?" 

"Where'd you go?" He smirked at her, leaning his chin on his knuckles and pretending to be daydreaming. 

Shaking her head, smiling, she said, "Nowhere, pretty sure my ass stayed on this uncomfortable bench the entire time." 

"Hey, Glenn, you're needed inside." 

Both Robin and Glenn were startled when a young voice from behind them piped up. It was Carl with his hat, standing there waiting for the man to get up. 

"Oh, okay, then. Well, I'll see you later Robin." He said and got up to leave.

"Sure." She waved him off. 

Carl stayed, however. She couldn't lie, it was hella uncomfortable as the kid watched her, not saying anything. She understood that he was a kid, sure, but did he have to look at her like she belonged in the god damn zoo? 

She turned to him, a strained small on her lips. "Is everything okay?" She asked, politely. 

"I heard you yelling before." He said, placing his hands on his hips just like his dad do. 

Robin licked her lips, pondering on what to say. "Sorry about that. I just got angry, I guess." 

Carl sat down on the bench next to her, their knees touching. It took her by surprise. "I know it was Daryl you were fighting with. I saw him in there before you got there." He informed, seeming very calm about the situation.

She rubbed her thighs, uncertain about his demeanour. "Things got out of hand, I know that." 

He looked up at her, his blue eyes soft. "When I first met Daryl he used to scare me." He smiled, "He always seemed so angry but I think he was just nervous because he wasn't really used to people."

Awkwardly, Robin nodded. What was all this about? Was he trying to make her feel bad about what she did and said? 

He continued, "He had a brother, Merle. He wasn't very nice at first, but he sacrificed himself for us." 

Now she was really uncomfortable. Having just inwardly praised Glenn for not going around and gossiping about peoples lives, it feels intrusive of her to hear this. It wasn't Carls story to share.

"I don't think Daryl would like it very much if he knew that you were talking about his dead brother." She remarked, trying to make it clear that she'd heard enough.

The kid shook his head, "I'm just trying to say that Daryl means well, at least I think. My dad said I should have patience with him. And I think it's working." 

Robin looked at him, wondering how a kid like this could've survived this long. He seemed to... innocent. But after all, she didn't know his past -or his story. 

She got up from the bench, "Okay, I'll have patience." She said and walked off.

Patience wasn't for her. She understood that people were wired differently, and she respected that. People have different ways to cope and mourn. It just felt easier to leave the man alone, letting him work through his own trauma. She had enough on her plate, she thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is another short chapter, however, a longer one is coming up tomorrow. This is just me trying to show that Robin is a nice person who's got a lot of things to deal with.  
> Not everything will go down exactly like the show. You'll see that when the governor tries to destroy the prison.
> 
> <3


	6. Laughter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Weee, another chapter. This was supposed to come out yesterday but one of my friends was in really bad shape and needed help, so I couldn't finish it. But now it's here and we get to see some DarylxRobin bonding.

She laid in her bed. The sun had settled hours ago, leaving the sky black. For being the very start of autumn, the weather is very hot. But she tried to complain as little as possible. Just having to be inside her cell at night was fine with her. As long as she was allowed outside during the day she didn't mind sleeping on the stale bed. 

The prison echoed and creaked. Some people were still up. She could hear them all the way from section B. She was all alone in section C which was nice during the late hours, but sometimes it could get a little bit too quiet. 

Having made friends with Glenn was enough. Earning some of his trust was good. But the gnawing feeling of wanting to be a genuine friend to him, and just want to use him to get out was almost unbearable. Because she did like him. he was charming and funny at times. But she had to get out. 

She had to get out because she didn't belong here. She's been here for four days and she still can't get used to the thought of staying here permanently. It was nice to hear other people talking and laughing but she was best off on her own. 

Turning to lay on her side, facing the wall, she closed her eyes. Willing her mind to stop racing. She needed rest. She needed to let her mind take a break for the night. 

But thoughts of her current state interrupted her. She thought about how Glenn had made her feel better. About working alongside with Beth. Her fight with Daryl and what Carl had told her.

The fight with Daryl was something that was on her mind since she had talked to Carl. She didn't feel bad about saying the things she said to Daryl. Everyone's lost someone. She felt bad about him losing someone he cared about, of course. But losing someone wasn't an excuse to be a dick. 

Or so Robin thought. 

People mourn differently, people cope differently. She tried to tell herself that. But her having already disliked him from the start made it harder for her to think so. She knew she was accountable as well. She could've handled it better. Much better, in fact. She has to get a grip around her emotions. It's dangerous to be angry. 

And she should be thankful that he hasn't told Rick about it. At least she believes he hasn't, otherwise, Ricky would probably have locked her up again. 

That was nice of Daryl she supposed. 

Her back ached and her feet were tired. She didn't count on getting any sleep that night.  
~~~~

Opening the door, she looked outside. More leaves had fallen off the trees and even more corpses have surrounded the gates. People were trying to dispose of the corpses but it looked like nothing was happening even though they killed multiple of them. Like they were never-ending.

She could hear their growling from afar, she's gotten used to not hearing them anymore. She didn't like that.

Looking around for Beth, she spotted her by the cooking shed where a lady named Carol was standing by, handing out breakfast to everyone. She headed down the hill to walk up to Beth, asking her about what she was going to do today.

Beth had Judith in her lap, bouncing her gently as she cooed at her. She looked up when she saw Robin approach her. "Hey, ready to start the day?" 

Robin nodded, "Of course." 

The blonde pointed towards where carol was standing, "Get a plate for yourself. Perhaps you'll be lucky and get some of the eggs that we've gotten from the chickens." 

She thanked Beth and walked over to stand in line just like the others. It felt weird, almost too normal. Waiting in line for food felt foreign. She was used to hunting for her own food. To use her bow and feel the satisfaction of having killed her victim. She missed it. 

"Next," Carol announced and Robin walked up to her. The lady placed cooked beans and some corn on her plate and handed it to her. "here you go." 

It was an odd breakfast, but she was thankful for it. "Thank you." She said and sat down by an empty table. The beans were cooked nicely and the corn was sweet. She used to love corn with butter on it. 

She scooped up some beans with her spoon and enjoyed the flavours. Her stomach thanking her for nourishing herself so early in the morning. 

She couldn't help but feel happy at the sound of people eating by tables and laughing - like things were kinda okay. She looked around. There were about ten tables with four chairs at each. She saw Beth again, now eating with Maggie who just arrived eating by one table, and Daryl, Hershel and Rick by one. 

But Robin was content eating just by herself, just listening to the people around her. She couldn't decipher any words, really. But she could enjoy the sound of not being alone. 

People were already by the fences, offing corpses. More and more has started to push on the fence to the point where it was almost leaning over. She saw Rick eyeing it like he was afraid it would cave in at any given moment. 

She wishes she could help. She might as well make her time here worthwhile. But she didn't have her bow and she hasn't really used any other weapons before. And she highly doubted that Rick would trust her with any kind of weapon. 

Robin got startled when a woman sat down in front of her. Robin looked up at her and wondered why the hell she chose this seat.

The woman was dark with black hair pulled back in a ponytail. She was insanely beautiful. 

"Hi." She said, digging into her breakfast. "I'm Sasha." 

Robin smiled kindly at her. She did think it was odd of her to choose this table when there were at least two other empty ones. But it didn't really bother her. It would've bothered her when Robin first arrived, but now when she's getting a little bit used to it she didn't really mind it.

"Robin." 

She was almost done with her food and enjoyed the last beans she chewed. Sasha didn't say anything else, either, and just continued eating. 

The sun was rising and she could surely feel that it would be another warm day. But the temperature was definitely declining. The grass was starting to become a faded orange and the leaves on the trees were still falling graciously. A small gust of wind would cool the skin nicely from time to time, just to remind you that autumn was coming.

She had been worried about how she would cope during winter. But now when she was stuck in this prison, she didn't know if she still had to worry about it. Robin did plan on escaping before winter come. But it seemed more and more difficult. Unless these people get a grip around the corpses surrounding the prison, it would be extremely dangerous for her to try and escape. 

"Do you know what you're doing for the day, Robin?" Sasha suddenly asked, seemingly done with her plate of food, too.

She shrugged in response, "Water the crops, I think. I might have to ask Rick about it." 

The woman in front of her looked at Rick, then back to Robin. "Rick has a lot to do today. I think it's best to leave him alone for now." 

Robin looked at her, then nodded. She seemed nice. "Okay, then I'll just ask Beth." 

Sasha shook her head. "She's going on a run, won't be back until dawn, at least." 

"Then Glenn." 

"Glenn? You mean Maggie's boyfriend? Really?" 

"What? What's wrong with him?" She said, a bit annoyed at her reaction to her trust in Glenn.

She must've noticed Robins tone change because she raised her hands in mock surrender, "Nothing, I just don't know him very well." 

"Okay, well," She stood up and took her plate, "Glenn knows his shit, you know? I'll ask him." Robin waved goodbye to her just to show that she wasn't truly upset. 

She gave back her plate to carol and thanked her. She started to walk towards the prison's entrance when someone called her name from behind her. Turning around, she saw Daryl almost running after her and she immediately felt like hiding, ashamed of her sudden out-lash at him the other day. 

"You with me today. You gon' be inside with me when I take care of the food." He said, nodding towards the prison.

So, she was going to spend her day inside? And with Daryl. What was happening? "Take care of the food?" 

"Yea, the deer ain't gon' skin itself." He jested.

She felt a bit dumb just then. It had only been a few days since she got taken and she has already forgotten that food just doesn't get done by itself. She liked changes, but this change wasn't that great. She missed hunting. She missed her bow.

He suddenly walked past her and up towards the prison, Robin shortly following him. 

Robin was fairly tall. But Daryl was a bit taller and she could tell by the speed he was walking at. His legs were long and taking big, confident strides. She had to take small but speedy steps to be able to keep up with him. 

When they stepped inside he motioned for her to follow him and led her down a hallway and into a room with a deer hanging upside down from the ceiling. The room contained two long tables with two chairs. There were no windows and the air was humid. 

"You can sit ove' there." He pointed at the chair was angled a little bit to face the other chair by the tables. 

She did as he said and took a seat. She watched as he cut down the deer and laid it on top of the table next to her. Watching as he started to work on the animal, she admired his technique. He was swift with the sharp knife and cut it open like he had done it a hundred times before. 

Robin had only managed to catch a deer once. She had no idea how to skin it. But she did the best she could and ate what she thought was edible. Her diet before the prison had mostly consisted of squirrels and rabbits. It was an okay source of food once and a while. But when it became the only thing she ate, she could feel her body deteriorating.

She lost a lot of weight and she became colder much easier. She didn't eat any carbs and her brain got slower. It wasn't always that she managed to catch something and had to go days without eating. So she was lucky that she found a group when she did. 

"You're good at that." She said, hoping that he could hear the truth laced in her words.

Daryl looked over at Robin for a moment, giving her a small smile. "Thanks, ain't nothing I haven't done before." 

She smiled back at him, glad that he accepted her compliment. "I can tell." 

Still watching him, she could feel the apology of her actions on her tongue. Robin wasn't great at apologies. It was never something she liked to do. She would just ignore the person she'd hurt until they eventually dropped it. 

She didn't want to make everything uncomfortable by bringing up the pointless fight. And the more she thought about it, she realised that it was her fault that it even happened. Daryl had just told her to leave. He did say it a bit harsher than necessary, but she has realised now that that's just how he communicates. And she can't blame him for having a bad temper when she has obvious issues with it as well. 

Robin didn't like hypocrites. 

"Ya okay over there?" His voice protruded her mind and brought her back to reality.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I just-" She had to say it, she had to make it right, "I just thought about what I said, the other day." She saw how he tensed, his shoulders becoming stiff. "I lost it. And it was my fault that it went down the way it did. I'm sorry." 

It was starting to feel like a mistake to have said anything at all when he didn't say anything. But when he put down the knife and turned to her, she hoped that he wasn't upset. 

"Is' alrigh'. I get it, new place and new people who are bossin' you aroun'. It ain't easy." He said, making sure that she listened. 

Robin felt relieved - and on the brink of tears. He understood. He understood what happened. It got her thinking about how he had managed to find Rick. How they found each other and how they got along in the beginning. Perhaps he would tell her one day.

One day? 

No, not one day. She wasn't going to stick around for so long. No way. It almost scared her how that thought has appeared. That shouldn't have happened. Just after a couple of days, she has already settled down in a place where she was forced to stay? That was bullshit. 

"Have you guys been here for long?" She question as he flipped the deer around, hoping to think of something else.

"Couple of months. It was overrun by walkers when we got here." 

"'Walkers'. Where the hell did you get that name from?" She teased, hoping she wasn't crossing any invisible lines. 

He snorted, "Makes jus' as much sense as corpses." 

Robin shook her head, smiling, "No, corpses makes more sense. Because it's dead people - corpses." 

"And what do these corpses do - they walk. Walkers." Daryl joshed. 

She couldn't help but laugh and became thrilled when he joined in. And she couldn't help but notice how laughing fit him. It made him look beautiful. She felt stupid for even thinking that, but it was true. 

Perhaps he wasn't all that bad, after all. Maybe he could prove to be useful when it came to her escape.


	7. Thoughts

After spending the morning inside the tiny room with Daryl and the butchered deer it was almost time for lunch. It had been surprisingly pleasant to be with Daryl. They talked a little sometimes about the people at the prison. Like a woman named Eliza was rumoured to be sleeping with Samantha's husband, Rodney. And when it was quiet it didn't seem awkward - not to Robin at least.

One thing Daryl didn't want to talk about was why she was with him for the day. He avoided the question by smoothly driving the conversation elsewhere. She suspected it was Rick's doing. That Carl had told his father about the fight and now Rick is trying to avoid untold hostility. But that was just her guess - and she was often wrong.

"I think it's time for some lunch. We can be ou'side for that." He declared while cleaning his knife on his pant leg.

Robin got out of the chair she's been sitting in for hours and stretched her arms. "Sounds good to me." 

They went outside and got served a piece of pork and two potatoes by Carol. 

Daryl led her to a table at the far back. She took a seat and dug into her lunch, it was strange how she could be so hungry after doing nothing all day. The body is strange. 

Cutting up a piece of pork, she said, "You wanna tell me why I'm stuck with you?" 

The man who sat in front of her shoved a large piece of potato in his mouth and grunted. "Ion' know. You oughta be thankful you ain't in that cell at least." 

Robin's eyes widened and her stomach rolled. Why did he all of a sudden seem so defensive? And why did it make her want to scream? 

"I am grateful." She said in a hushed tone, hoping her voice didn't quiver with the desire to yell at him to fuck off for his sudden mood change.

"Bein' insi-" 

Daryl was swiftly inturrupted by Carol who took a seat beside Robin. She looked happy and had a smile plastered on her lips. The smile seemed awfully forced, though. Robin liked Carol. Carol was a nice lady and she herself told Robin that she wanted her to be outside the cell - to be one of them. But she got the feeling that the somewhat older lady had a whole facade up. That she was actually a bit sad. 

"What have you two been doing?" She asked, her voice happy.

Robin looked at Daryl, waiting for him to take the lead. But he didn't. So she spoke up instead, "Oh, I've just been watching while he cuts up a deer, is all." She suddenly felt quite claustrophobic.

"Great, although I thought you worked in the gardens?" 

"Yeah, I don't- I don't know what happened there." Robin could basically see when Carol realised that she didn't enjoy this conversation. As she said, she liked Carol, but she couldn't help but feel pressed against a wall. She couldn't control it, and she guessed that Daryl couldn't either. 

The woman just shook her shoulders nonchalantly. "Must be something that Rick decided without telling us." 

Robin didn't say anything. That was what felt the most comfortable. Daryl and Carol started talking which felt better. They didn't try to include her and it didn't upset her one bit. She chose not to be involved. It was her choice - because it was her choice to make. 

After having eaten and Daryl had finished his conversation about the out of control corpses, he told her to return to the room again. 

"Aren't you coming too?" She asked, puzzled.

"I am, just gotta take a piss." He said and the walked off all the way behind the prison.

She couldn't help but smile a little - cause it was a little funny. 

But she returned to the small room again was were pieces of deer meat was laying on the table and the fur was hanging over one of the chairs. He told her that the fur can be used as covers for the beds which will be useful now when winter is coming. 

It didn't take long before he arrived with a plastic bag in his hand. He shoved the meat into the bag and then zipped it up in under a minute. He was very speedy. Laying the bag on the table, he turned to look at her. 

"Are you tellin' us the truth?" He queried, his face very serious.

Robin huffed and leaned back further in her chair. "I thought we've been over this." 

Daryl leaned against the table, supporting his weight with his arm. "You ain't plannin' on runnin' off to your people, hm?" 

"I'm not having this conversation again." She said, getting up from the chair. 

"You ain't goin' nowhere till you told me who you are." He said, pointing a finger at her. 

Swatting his finger away, she sneered at him. "There is nothing to tell, Daryl. I have told you everything I know - which is practically nothing." 

"Then why," His voice grumbled as he raised it, "are you lookin' around the place all the damn time. You ain't very subtle, ya know. Castin' looks at all the exits, starin' at peoples weapons and shit." 

Robins's stomach flipped over and her eyes stung. She wanted nothing more than to yell at him. To explain to him that of course, she would be looking to escape after they've captured her. But she tried to keep it under control - to show to herself that she could control herself when she wanted to. 

"Daryl, you guys dragged me here, locked me up and refuse to believe whatever words come outta my mouth. Of fucking course will I want to leave." She ranted, hoping he would catch the drift. 

It felt stupid to ruin this. It had gone so well. 

He looked at her like he was trying to read her like a book. Then suddenly, his face contorted into a grimace of disapproval. "You one of 'em kinda girls, ain't ya? One of those who will use her looks and puppy dog eyes to get outta tricky situations, hm?" 

See, now it broke. Her thin, thin barrier of self-control just burst. She got angry and once again, careless. 

She laughed a dry laugh. "What the actual fuck are you on about? Is this some sort of self-projection shit? Are you insecure, Daryl? Is that it?" 

He looked angry. That was all. 

"Listen, girl, just cause you're outta your cell don't mean we can't lock you up again. So you betta be real fuckin' careful." 

"Why the fuck do you hate me so much?" She asked him, the words just slipping out. It was a genuine question, just a little bit unexpected.

Daryl stopped. Like someone had just flipped the switch. It seemed as if he was gathering the words for a sentence.

Now, Robin had two options. Let him explain and then hit back with some snarky ass comment that will fuel on the fight or she could be the bigger person and try to end this. In her past life, before the shit hit the fan, she would've chosen to continue this stupid fight for as long as she could. But now, she doesn't have anyone else. She can change what she chooses to. And hopefully, it can turn things around.

She exhaled, hoping that he'll listen. "Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. I just wonder why all the other people around here have gotten used to me and you haven't. I don't want to fight with you."

Daryl shifted his weight on his feet and looked to his right. "We fightin' some bad people. We thought you were one of 'em. I'm scared that if we let our guard down that you'll try to get to them." He admitted. 

She actually felt a little bit sorry for him. He seemed awfully worried. But she bet that she would be worried to if she had a whole community at risk. He looked to be this rough guy but now she could tell that he has a lot of thoughts flying around in his head all the time. Just like she has.

"I don't know the governor." 

He looked back at her. "How you know that he-" 

"Carl told me." She waved it off, "But as I was saying - I don't know those people. Before I got here I lived alone in the woods, caring for myself and hoping that I would go to bed without a bite mark." 

He bit his lip, nodding. "Sorry. I'm just..." 

"Afraid?" She answered for him, but he quickly shook his head and huffed at her.

"Nah, I ain't afraid of nothin'." 

Daryl reminded her a lot of herself. He thought about things too much. Overthinking seemed to be something he was rather good at. And he had a hard time talking about how his feelings and how it affected him. She couldn't judge him. She knew what that is like. Perhaps his story wasn't very kind.

"Okay."


	8. That feeling that its your fault

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW: mentions of eating disorders.

"So, how'd it go with Dixon?" Glenn asked as he sharpened one of the many knives laid on the ground.

"Dixon?" Robin said, cringing at the sound the knife made. 

Glenn nodded, moving on to yet another knife. "Yeah, Dixon. Daryl Dixon - the guy you spent the entire day with yesterday." 

Oh.

"His last name is Dixon? Suits him. Well, anyway, it was fine. I just sat there watching him tear open an animal. No work for me." 

He smirked at her, a mischievous glint in his eye. "I think watching his muscles was enough work for you." 

Robin snorted and rolled her eyes. "What the hell..."

"Come on," He said and moved on to the last knife (finally), "I'm straight but I can't even resist taking a peek at his muscles while he's working." 

Laughing, she pointed at him. "Don't let Maggie hear that." 

"Don't let Maggie hear what?" 

As if someone had planned it, Maggie had sneaked up behind them. She had corpse blood over her shirt and her hair was tangled. She still looked really pretty, though. 

Glenn shook his head, not looking at either of them. "Eh, nothing." He scoffed, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Really?" Maggie looked at Robin for answers, but she was giggling too much to say a word. 

It felt good to laugh for once. Like a real laugh. It's not something you do while you're alone in the woods - except for when reality settles in and you realise what a cluster fuck the world is and you have to kill dead people in order to survive. That's a reason to laugh, alright.

"Alright, well, Glenn, you and I are going to help a few other people killing those damn walkers that have filled up again," Maggie said. Robin thought it was strange that she said 'again' as if they ever managed to kill them all off, "Robin, Rick wants to talk ya 'bout something, says it's important." 

"Okay, do you know what it is he wants?" She asked as she got up from the ground. She didn't want to admit it, and she would never tell anyone this, but she was a little bit afraid of Rick. Or maybe not afraid but she respected him. He was after all a former cop and he seemed to know what the fuck he was doing which was hard nowadays. Or perhaps it was all a facade just like Carol's feelings. 

Maggie shook her head and walked over to Glenn, who put his arm around her waist. "No, but I think you should get there as soon as possible. He's in A block waitin' for ya." 

The couple walked off and Robin headed to A block. She was never there. Having been in this prison for almost a week was strange. She had planned on escaping as soon as she was allowed outside. But now she has gotten used to it. Almost started to like it. And it scared her shitless. She had tried so hard not to get accustomed to this - to having friends, regular food and having people around her. 

You can't be so many people in just one group or community. It was basically a disaster waiting to happen. A bomb waiting to explode. 

And she could hear the ticking.

Rick sat at a round table but got up when she entered the room. He didn't have his cop uniform on anymore - probably because it was too stiff with all the dried-up corpse blood on it. Also, more 'normal' clothes suited him. Before it just seemed lame and that he was hanging on to the cop life.

"Hey, thanks for coming." He said, gesturing for her to sit down by the table he's standing at. 

"Well, it's not like I have a choice, do I?" There was no malice in her voice. 

He looked sheepish and sat down next to her. "No, it isn't." 

It was in this room most of them slept in. Well, it was at least where Rick, Carl and Judith slept. For a moment it felt like she was visiting someone in their house. Like how you could do before everything went downhill. 

"Is there anything you needed?" She asked when he didn't say anything. Now when she could see him better, he looked very tired. He had dark circles under his eyes and his skin was ashen. He looked like he was half a walker. 

Corpse. Corpse, she meant.

"Yes, there is." Rick had his hands on the table, they were grimy as hell. "You've been here for what, six days, now?" Robin nodded. "When we... found you, you were carrying a bow, correct?" 

Her heart skipped a beat. She hoped this conversation was going in the direction she wanted to. But she learned as a kid that she was unlucky. Very fucking unlucky, as a matter of fact. 

"Correct." 

"Do you remember where ya dropped it?" 

"...Yes." 

"If I were to, say, let you retrieve it... would you be interested in helping us with huntin'? It's getting harder and harder to find anything the closer we're coming to winter."

Shit. Perhaps she wasn't all that unlucky. When her mother was in the hospital she had told Robin never to be deceived by luck. Cause, just when you think you got it, it vanishes. But Robin thinks she just said that because she thought she managed to escape from the hospital but got caught by the bus station.

Nodding vigorously, she said yes. Yes, yes ,yes ,yes! 

Rick smiled at her excitement and pulled out a map from his jeans pocket and settled it over the table. he pointed to a black square. "That's the prison." He then pointed at the green colour that covered most of the map. "This is where ya'll will be huntin'."

"Who are 'ya'll'?" She inquierd.

"Ya'll consists mostly of you and Daryl. But there will be a couple of other people going with ya from time to time." He said and crumpled up the map and shoved it back to where it belonged.

So she wouldn't be going alone. She should have figured but what's wrong with a little hope? 

A lot, probably.

"When can I get it back?" 

Rick stood up, "Now. Daryl is coming with ya. He's waitin' by the gate on the backside. Good luck." 

~~~~

After having put on a jacket she was gifted by Sasha, she had met up with Daryl who was leaning against the fence. He had his crossbow slung over his shoulders and was picking at his nails. They left as quietly as they could. She was glad that the corpses were only on the front but it would be better if they were more scattered around the prison so they didn't put too much weight on only one side of the fence.

They walked along a track that supposedly led them back to her bow. She got a new spurt of energy by the mere thought of hunting again. The only thing she was good at. The thing she could rely on. 

The silence they walked in felt stiff. Not like the silence they had when they were in that tiny room together. This just felt uncomfortable. Robin wasn't one to start a conversation and Daryl wasn't either. And even if she did want to talk, what the hell was she supposed to say? Maybe something about hunting since he seems to like it, too. Or what his favourite colour is. Fuck if she knows. 

She thought it was stupid to be this nervous talking to him when she had done just that yesterday. People are weird. She's weird. So she mustered up the courage to finally say something.

"How long have you been hunting for?" Her voice broke the silence like a sharp knife. 

He continued to look straight ahead. "Since I was a teenager." 

Robin nodded. What now. "I'm happy to be hunting again. I missed it." 

A grunt was his response. Nice. 

She kicked a small rock on the ground and it landed in front of Daryl, who kicked it forward, angling it so it would land by her. She smiled and kicked it again. And he kicked it again. And so on. And when the rock would fly off too far they found another one. And they kept going like that until they had to turn left and into the woods. 

It had been an odd way of communicating. Like telling each other that they don't really know what to say to each other but they want the other person to know that the silence isn't ill-intended. 

Now Robin was more comfortable around him. Knowing that he wasn't mad or bothered by her. 

"You know," She said, trying to keep up with him, "when I was younger my grandma said that when the world ends only women would survive because men are weak."

Daryl snorted but didn't look at her. "Really?" 

"Yeah, but she got arrested when she was eighty-one for possession of marijuana and later died in prison, so..." 

Now he looked at her, a smile on his lips. "Really? Christ." 

"Yup. Probably one of the coolest people I've ever known. She was married to six different men and they all left because she was paranoid and crazy." 

He laughed and shook his head in disbelief. "Sounds like a cool chick. Bet she raised your mam a bit crooked though." He said, looking around them for any danger.

Robin nodded slowly and couldn't help but smile. "Oh yes, she did. She didn't just raise her a bit crooked, she raised her fucking bent." 

A gust of wind cooled their skin and Robin wrapped her jacket tighter around her. Winter was definitely around the corner. 

Daryl raised an eyebrow at her. "Bent? Do I even wanna know?" 

She sighed and thought back to her childhood. She had good memories and slightly worse memories. "My mom was a nice woman," Robin didn't know why she decided to tell him. She didn't even know if he wanted to listen. But she needed to tell someone. Having been alone with these memories all by herself had taken a serious toll on her health- physically and mentally. "She tried really hard to make the best of a fucked situation - no matter how fucked it might've been. But she didn't really care for herself. And when she didn't care for herself she couldn't care for me." 

It felt like she couldn't stop. She had to get everything out to someone who is willing to listen. Daryl was a quiet person and she trusted him that he would listen. And when she looked at him he was looking right back at her. He was listening. 

"It all just spiralled. My dad was never there but it didn't matter. I loved my mom. But mom didn't really love herself, though. It was like she was wired to self destruct. She was anorexic with bulimic tendencies. For as long as I can remember she was like that. My grandmother would yell and beg for her to eat but it very, very rarely worked." She had to stop to breathe. It was hard talking about it but she had to. 

Daryl had been quiet the whole time, letting her rant about it. And he didn't look annoyed at her rambling, he looked sympathetic. His eyes were soft and they met her wide, slightly erratic ones. 

He inhaled like he was getting ready to ramble like her. "Ion' know anything about eating disorders or nothin', but I know what it's like to..." He faltered and looked away from her gaze, "what it's like to have parents who ain't like everyone else's. So I know what i's like to have tha' feelin'. Tha' feeling tha' i's your fault for not havin' 'normal' parents." His voice was low and steady. 

She was happy that he could understand - not happy that he went through whatever it was that he went through, but that they could share that feeling together. She was happy that she wasn't completely alone again.


	9. Call this place a home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm rewatching Orange is the new black and I completely forgot that this existed lol. Also, Nicky is so hot omg.

Quickly, she scooted down the hill she had rolled down just a few days ago. Her bow lay there, in the wet dirt and mushy leaves. She picks it up and examines it. It wasn't broken but it did have a few scratches that weren't there before. But it was fine. It was whole and intact. 

"Ya got it?" A gruff voice asks from atop the hill.

She smiles, happy that she got it back. "Yes, yes I've got it." 

Climbing back up the hill wasn't very gracious. Her foot slipped and she landed on all fours. Daryl asked worriedly if she was okay and then offered his hand to help her up the last couple of steps. She would've slapped it away before, to show that she could do and handle things by herself. She would've done that. But it was difficult to get up, so she accepted his gesture and grabbed his hand and he helped to hoist her up. He gave her a reassuring, and somewhat awkward, smile afterwards.

After that, they walked that exact route again back home. 

Home.

Back to the prison. Prison. Yes.

They talked a little and he looked over her bow and pursed his lips as he weighed it in his hands. It felt like it went faster on the way home because soon they were back and snuck in around the back gates. Daryl and Robin said goodbye for then and they both went on with their day.

She thought that she could look out for Sasha. She was often down by the fence, looking over the corpses and making sure that no one got hurt. And even though Sasha was very nice, she was very honest. Just like Robin. So they made quite a match. 

And as she had predicted, the tall black woman was standing by the entrance killing a few corpses that pushed too much for her liking. 

"Hey!" 

Sasha turned around, seeing that it was Robin her face lit up. That made Robin very happy. "Hey, where you been?" She asks, noticing the bow in her hand.

Robin showed it to her, letting her hold it. "Daryl and I retrieved the bow that I dropped when they found me. I'm really fucking happy to have it back." 

"I can see that. You look happier than ever, actually." Sasha eyed her, her own eyes filled with mirth just by seeing Robin smile like that.

Perhaps it was just getting her bows back that made her so darn joyful. Or it was the fact that Daryl and her connected. That she wasn't alone again. And how he had slightly opened up to her, letting her rant to him without making her feel completely crazy. Maybe it was that, too. 

But Robin didn't say any of that. Because Robin knew that what she thought, what she wished for, might make her seem too attached to the place. Even though she had considered staying on several occasions, she still couldn't help but feel nauseous when thought about it that way. So she just told her... friend that she was happy to have her bow back and then the conversation flowed on and Robin caught herself thinking once again that she might've actually found a place where she doesn't have to fear that she going insane by herself. 

~~~~

Robin took off her shoes and stripped off her disgustingly filthy pants. She was too embarrassed to ask Rick for new clothes. It felt like that might come off as demanding or something. She washed off most of the dirt from her face with a soaked tissue and tried to run her hands through her hair, to no avail.

She never thought it would feel so good to be back in that stiff ass bed. It honestly felt like heaven to pull the thin blankets over her. Still, not using the gross pillows, she used a spare cover that Maggie had given to her. 

When everything went quiet, she could hear the outside. The corpses growling and trying to break down the fence so they could feast on their bodies. The world was proper fucked up now, she thought. 

She listened to it, willing for them go away. She listened to them so hard in fact, that she didn't even notice the footsteps approaching her little cubicle. 

A man cleared his throat, "Robin? You awake?" 

With a start, she sat up, hyper-aware that she didn't have any knives to protect herself with. When she managed to see through the dark that it was a familiar man, she visibly relaxed. "Daryl, what the fuck." 

"Sorry, I didn't know you wen' to sleep this early." He basically whispered to her. 

"I'm tired." She said flatly. "And you don't have to whisper as I'm obviously not asleep." 

She heard him chuckle. "Aight, well, I brought ya these arrows. Don't know if you had any left. These should do tha trick." He then laid about ten arrows beside her bed. 

She was genuinely touched. Whether it was his idea to bring her the arrows or it was anyone else's didn't matter. He brought them here and it made her glad. "Thank you. That's very nice of you." 

He shrugged, looking like he was suddenly nervous. "Just wanted to make sure you could use it, ya know." 

Robin nodded, smiling. "Again, thank you." 

He wished her a good night and left.

Perhaps she could call this place home. If they let her, of course.


	10. Monsters who pull you into the dark

T-dog stood beside Robin and she could tell that he wanted to say something. Sometimes you don't even have to look at someone to know what they want to say - they just radiate some sort of energy. And it was awkward, to say the least. Rick had assigned her to keep watch from one of the watchtowers that give you an excellent view of the area. She was more than happy that he trusted her enough to give her such an important job. It was just a little less good when she found out that her companion was T-dog. 

Rick said that he did trust her... to a certain degree. And that she would share this duty with someone whom he trusted fully. What Robin knew, was that T-dog has been with them since the start. The start of the downfall, so to speak. The somewhat large man was probably a charming chap if you got to know him. But her first experience with him wasn't really the best first impression. Being pressed into raw dirt wasn't that great of a start with someone. 

So they stood still and watched over the plains. Robin leant onto the sidewall and had her arms crossed. Perhaps to show him that she wasn't completely happy with him, or she was just trying to protect herself from the cold. 

"Those walkers are definitely slowin' down." He looked down at them, shivering at the sight.

He was right. They were indeed slowing down and they had taken advantage of that. She pursed her lips, "Mhm." 

T-dog looked over at her, his lips were pressed into a tight, thin line. He shook his head and looked down at his shoes. "Shit, I'm sorry, girl. I just did what I was told." 

Robin knew that, of course. Rick probably shouted at him to chase her down and she was just in such a hurry to get the fuck outta there so she didn't even hear it. But she needed to show him that she was still bitter. Because Robin was the best at holding a grudge. And it made her feel better to show him that he fucked up. Maybe that was awful and rude but that's just what she does. Always have done. So she just shrugged and pointed her nose up in the air - in her book that was like a silent 'fuck off, please.' 

"Ion know what you want me to say, man. I'm sorry, though. Really." It did sound like he meant it, it did. 

Goddamit. 

She sighed and glanced over at him, a slightly forced smile on her lips. "Okay. Great. Wonderful, even." 

The man looked at her, a weird grimace plastered on his face. "Right." He sounded and looked sceptical - she liked that. She said it was okay, but he still showed signs of regret. Nice. 

Maybe this was some fucked up way for her to keep some sort of control. Because to have control was important to her. Her mother showed her that. Her mother had control over food, and Robin has control over other people... Actually, that was a lie. A big meaty, fat lie. Her mother didn't have control over food, the food controlled her. And Robin sure as hell doesn't have control over T-dog or anyone else in this prison, for that matter. She just liked the thought of it. Like her mother like the thought of control over food.

They stood up there doing nothing but watching the sun slowly settle beneath the horizon. It was actually really pretty, she thought. All the colours blending together made it look like a painting. Maybe something her mother would've painted someday. She always envied the mom of her painting skills. Robin always thought she got her fathers talent - which was nothing, her mother used to tell her. So that sucked. 

Their shift ended and two other women took their place. Robin felt relieved that they hadn't spotted anything out of the ordinary. She could go to bed feeling like she has done at least something useful. Everyone liked going to bed feeling needed or wanted. That's just a fact. 

The prison was getting colder with the weather and that was something Rick was trying to fix. But extra blankets that are as thin as an ostrich's legs aren't going to help right now. Those blankets were given to the children and those who are in extra poor condition... or old people. Robin thought that was fair. She would rather have a child have it a little warmer than someone like her who could take the cold. Some decency was still required in this world and she would contribute if she could - and wanted. 

Rick, Maggie, Hershel, Daryl and Glenn were gathered in B block, chatting about something. And judging by the tone of their voices, it was about something rather critical. They all stopped, though, when she entered the room. They stared at her and she stared right back at them.

"What's going on?" She finally asked them, feeling very idiotic. 

Rick did what he always does and places his hands on his hips, shifting his weight from foot to foot. "It doesn't concern you. You can go back yo your cell." 

Really? "Maybe I can help, Rick?" 

Glenn's eyes shot from Rick to Robin. He looked very anxious and suddenly he opened his mouth and a whole bunch of words flew out. "The governor is threatening to take down the prison and that we have to leave or he'll take us down with it." He rambled, looking very relieved when he got it out of him. 

"Fuck's sake..." Maggie sighed, acting as if this is something he does a lot. 

Robin nodded, wanting it to look like she understood everything he said. "Okay, is there something I can do?" She wanted Rick to see that she wasn't just an asshole they dragged here. Or, she was probably an asshole but not all the time...

Daryl was the one to speak up, however. "Ain't nothin' you can do. Ain't nothin' we can do." He stated. 

"Well," Hershel stood up from the chair he was sitting in and moved across the room to pour himself a glass of water. "we have to do something. We can't just let the fella take the place. We have children here, for god's sake." 

"When did he say this? That he's going to take down the prison?" She asked, wanting to get more information. Perhaps she could help. 

Rick shook his head and wiped some sweat from his forehead. How the hell did he manage to work up a sweat in this chilly weather, was the question. Nerves, probably. 

"Yesterday. When you and Daryl were out I went to meet the guy." He looked even more tired now than he had done yesterday. She felt bad for him. 

"Do you guys have any plans at all?" 

"Protecting the place is all we can think of right now. Although we have talked abou-" Maggie started but was shortly cut off by Daryl who silenced her. 

"This is about us," He pointed to everyone besides Robin. "Not her. She doesn't need to know." 

That hurt. More than it should've. If Rick was getting used to her presence so should Daryl. Or maybe that was a stupid thought. A stupid mindset, even. But she did really think that Daryl had warmed up to her. Or maybe that was just a one-time thing where he let his very guarded walls down just to make her feel better for a while. And if that was the case she understood that too. It sounded like something she would do. 

But it still hurt, of course. 

"I'm here. I'm here and I don't know for how long, so let me help while I can." She protested, looking at Daryl, not Rick. 

Daryl didn't keep the eye-contact for very long before he huffed and looked away. Perhaps he knew what Rick would say.

"I agree," Rick said, looking over the other people to see if they agree with him. "She can be useful." 

"You jus' said that this don't concern her." Daryl shot back. 

"The fuck is your problem?" Ha, there it was. The carelessness within her escaped. She wasn't necessarily angry at him, she truly wasn't. Just hurt. 

Daryl shot a death glare towards her before turning his attention to Rick again. "C'mon man. This is serious, that man out there, he's dangerous. We can't let people we don't know get involved in this shit." 

She shook her head in disbelief. Yesterday felt like a big joke. A big fucking joke. 

Rick gave him a stern glare. "We do know her. She's been helpin' us and you've been out with her on your own. We need all the help we can get, brother." 

The other man looked to Robin, then gave up and nodded slowly, stepping down from the dull fight going on. "Fine." 

The former cop looked pleased. And the rest of the night went to talking about what they could do to protect the prison from an attack. They explained that they knew the governor had weapons but just not how big or many. So they decided that it was best to start preparing for an attack already. 

The question of when popped up. Neither of them knew when Philip has planned to try and take them down. And that was a big scare for all of them. Not knowing when a guy can suddenly show up and blow you to bits is quite terrifying. Glenn suggested that they were to reinforce the fence since the walkers have slowed down. Rick thought that was a good idea and wrote down a dozen of people who could help with that. 

Robin was the one who brought up the gear question. She said that they would need good protective gear, especially the ones who would be up-close and fight. And Maggie said that she could go for a run and try to find any possible gear that would help them even in the slightest - anything was better than nothing. Hershel stated that considering they were in a prison that they were bound to find some sort of protective gear. 

"What about weapons, then?" Glenn asked, letting Maggie lean her head on his shoulder. It was well past midnight and everyone wanted to go to bed by now.

Rick sighed and looked at the notes he had been taking the entire time. "We have a decent amount of 'em. But it wouldn't hurt to find more." 

"But enough for us to fight, right?" 

"Yes. Yes, we have enough." 

Hershel yawned and stood up, "We're not going to be in any suitable shape if we don't get a generous amount of sleep. Let's call it a day and continue tomorrow." 

"We can't 'call it a day' while some psycho guy is out there plotting our deaths!" Daryl caterwauled, clearly in great distress. 

"We'll continue tomorrow right where we left it, boy." 

"He's right, Daryl. Everyone's exhausted. And we won't be able to do this right if we're sleep deprived." Robin tried to resonate with him. 

He looked at her as if she was the only one who could see him. She mouthed that it was going to be okay and shortly thereafter he left. She looked as he left to what she was hoping to be his bunker sp he could have a good amount of sleep. She bit her lip, wondering what he was feeling. 

Her thoughts were interrupted by Hershel's laughter. 

"What?" She asked, staring at him as his eyes glinted at her. 

"I like you. You two are very alike." 

Robin scrunched her nose and shook her head. "What?" She said again.

"You're both very... puzzling. You two would make a pair, alright." He bantered before leaving, too. 

She didn't even manage to spit out a witty remark. She probably wouldn't have been able to form any words. People are weird. It seemed as if she has forgotten how weird they are while she's been living alone. Either way, she likes Hershel too. He was honest and very quick to tell you if you're an idiot. 

It was pure bliss to lay down in that bed again. Her bed at her old cabin was nicer, softer. But she was glad that she had somewhere to sleep at least. She made sure that her feet were tucked away safely beneath the blanket. Even after having killed plenty of corpses and-. Either way, she still wasn't comfortable with having her feet exposed.

What if a monster grabs you and pulls you into the dark?


	11. The storm

It had taken a good amount of work to even collect the wood to barricade the fence. And it was even more of a pain in the ass to get them to stand up. But when it was all said and done it was very much worth it. Rick looked very pleased and tried to keep the people calm, but still told them what was going on. Robin liked that he didn't bullshit them. He said it how it was but very formally. Like 'You might die and we don't know exactly when, but rest assured, you'll be well protected.' 

When Robin and Daryl exited the gates, it looked completely different from the outside. It looked so real. Like now you could tell that something was happening. Either way, they still needed food so Robin and Daryl took that opportunity to go hunting. It was windy and cold. The clothes they wore weren't very thick and didn't protect them enough from the wind to seep through their jackets and onto their skin, creating goosebumps.

She had her bow in her hand and her quiver on her back. Daryl had his crossbow as per usual and an extra gun in a holster. Robin still hasn't gotten her pocket knife back. But it didn't bother her that much - she wasn't that great at using it, anyway. 

Glancing at the man beside her, she saw how worried he looked. He, too, seemed very weary. Which wasn't all that surprising considering that he likes to stay up all night just roaming the prison. Her best guess is that he can't rest because of his nerves. She, too, has that problem at the moment. 

"You okay?" She questioned him, but he barely seemed to notice.

He grunted, looking at the ground for any trails. She learned that he was very good at tracking. It amazed her, how he could tell that someone or something has been in that exact spot and where they ran off to. 

Robin sniffed, her nose was runny from the chilly weather. "I'm mostly worried about Philip's plans. We know nothing about it." 

"We just gotta be ready for the worst." He responded, still looking for tracks. His eyes roamed the ground and his eyebrows were knitted together in concentration. 

She studied the treetops in search of a squirrel. But she found nothing but dark grey clouds. "It looks like a storm is on its way. Do you think we should turn around?" 

"Nah, we have time." He objected, looking up at the sky himself. "We have to find somethin' at least." 

Nodding, she followed behind him. She looked in every direction to make sure she didn't miss anything. In hopes of finding food, she instead found a walker heading their way. 

"Hey, watch out!" She exclaimed, her heart suddenly racing. It has been a long time since she's killed one of them. Daryl shot an arrow right through its head, killing it instantly. It landed with a thud on the ground and he was quick to retrieve the arrow. That's when she saw a dozen more of them. 

"Walkers!" She yelled, grabbing an arrow from her quiver and placed it against her bow. Straining it, she aimed for the head. She let go and it plummeted right through the eye. She continued to shoot, alongside Daryl. 

Heavy rain started to fall from the sky and made everything twice as troublesome. Her hair was in her face and her shoes were soaked. They proceeded to kill them until Daryl yelled at her to follow him. She did as she was told and tried her best to keep up with him. She heard the walkers growl behind them. her heart thumped loudly in her chest. 

She followed him as he took a turn to the left and jumped over a big branch. The rain was cold on her skin and her jacket was heavy. Everything had escalated so quickly. 

"Ova' here!" He waved for her to keep up with him. Then she saw the beaten up shack he was running to. It looked two seconds away from falling and her first thought was that if a walker tries to get through, it most certainly will. 

He burst the door open and held it up for her. She ran inside and heaved as she put her hands on her knees for support. She heard him fiddle with the door and a loud bang. She looked up to find him blocking the exit. He turned around to face her, his hair dripping wet, slick against his forehead. 

"You okay?" His voice was trembling. 

She couldn't help but laugh. She couldn't keep it in. Buckling over in laughter and her eyes tearing up, she faced him. "Are you kidding? Do you know how much I've missed this shit? I actually forgot how amazing that feeling is. Feeling your adrenaline pump through your veins, you know."

Daryl looked at her as if she was out of her mind. Then he smiled himself, shaking his head. "You're crazy, woman." 

"Can you blame me? I've been locked inside that cement block long enough to forget what it feels like to use a bow." 

He grunted in response, shoving past her. She took a good look at the place. It almost looked like a worn-out stable. The roof was leaking, leaving water puddles on the dense ground. She heard rumbling outside. Thunder was joining them too, it seemed like. Daryl took a seat by a wall, sitting on the ground. 

She walked around the place, inspecting it. What the hell else was she supposed to do? She could feel him watching her as she moved around the room. It made her hyper-aware of what she was doing. Growling was heard from outside and she quickly stopped walking. Listening to the growling, she noted that they were passing the shack, moving forward. She let out a relieved sigh. 

"You notice tha' you called 'em walkers before?" Daryl noted, looking to see if he could get a reaction out of her. 

Furrowing her brows, she waved a hand through the air nonchalantly. "I was stressed. I didn't know what I was saying." 

He grinned. Like a full tooth grin. It made her stomach flutter. It weirded her out as to why that happened. But seeing him do something like that, was really attractive. It was true. 

"You gettin' used to the idea of stayin', then?" His voice bared uncertainty. Almost like he was nervous about hearing her answer. She just didn't know what answer he wanted. 

Kicking the ground, she sniffed. "I don't know. I mean, would you guys ever let me? Let me leave, I mean." She wiped the water from her face.

Daryl didn't say anything, just picked at his nails. Robin hated when people did that. It irked her so terribly. The thought of ripping your nail off too low was unbearable. "Stop doing that." 

"Doin' what?" 

"That." She pointed at his hands and he immediately stopped. "Thanks." She said, moving closer to him. Deciding to sit down, she chose a spot a little further away from him. Not too far away, but still keeping a distance from him. Mostly for his sake, to not make him uncomfortable. She remarked that he didn't like to be all that close to people and she respected that. And it wasn't like she wanted to be near him, anyway. 

"Issa bad habit." He explained, shrugging his wet hair away from his face. 

Nodding, she took a look at her own nails. They were short and dirty, but not damaged due to nail-biting. "I get it. I used to chew my hair when I was younger."

He looked over at her to see if she was serious. And when he was sure that she wasn't trying to fool him, he asked her if she was serious.

"Mhm, it got really bad and mom forced me to cut it all off. It was probably for the best. I mean, it helped." 

He huffed and turned back to fiddle with his hands. She took some time to admire them. They were large and looked very rough, but she was sure that they could be very gentle. 

Her eyes widened, and couldn't help but blush. What the fuck was she thinking? She even embarrassed herself by the mere thought. Clearing her throat, she licked her lips to moisten them. The freezing weather was making her lips incredibly chapped. 

"How long do you think we'll have to stay here?" Robin queried. It was cold and the wet clothes were making her shiver even more. 

"Till the storm settles. We won't be safe if we leave now. Don't wanna risk it." He explained. He was right, it was dangerous to leave right now. Though she was annoyed that everything has sort of went to shit. And it wasn't helping that she was hungry. And the thought of food made her stomach growl loudly. So loudly, in fact, that the man alongside her noticed. "Hungry?" 

Chuckling awkwardly she answered, "Well observed, Dixon." 

His face became a question mark. "How'd you know my last name?" 

"Glenn told me." 

He snorted, "Of course. That boy can't keep his mouth shut." He argued, but his voice showed no signs of resentment, which was comforting.

Robin smiled. Glenn was one of the first people who actually made Robin feel better. He was chatty and almost seemed insecure at times, but he was incredibly kind. She understands why Maggie loves him. And she sure as hell understands why Glenn loves Maggie - that chick has the looks and the skills. 

The thunder kept going and going. And the rain never ceased. They sat on the wet ground for at least an hour and things were starting to get boring. Now her excitement has worn out and it wasn't very fun anymore. She just wanted to get back. And she wanted food. Maybe something to drink too...

She glanced over at Daryl, he still sat on the exact same spot, his head tilting against the wall. She noticed that he has a tattoo on his hand. She points it out and he turns his attention to her. 

"Thanks." 

"Do you have any more of them?" She asked, hoping he wasn't feeling pressed up against a wall. 

He nodded, pointing with his thumbs to his back. "I've got one on my back, too." 

She didn't want to ask if he could show it. That felt like a bit too much. So she told him that she's always wanted to get one but never did because she has always been afraid of needles. He chuckled and answered that it's worth it in the end. 

"If you ever find a tattoo machine, you're gonna have to bring it to me and you can give me one, alright?" She said, only half-joking. She was tougher now, needles were the last thing she was scared of nowadays. 

Smirking, he clapped his hands against his knees. "You be up to that?" 

"Sure," She reassured, "if it'll turn out nice." 

"Knowin' my art skills it ain't gonna be very pretty." 

"Really? I tagged you for a brilliant artist. You look like you know some really deep shit that you can turn into deep paintings, you know?" She joked, hoping he would catch the drift. 

Daryl shook his head. "Nah, drawing ain't nothin' for me." He replied. 

"Fine, but you'll still have to give me a tattoo of some sort." 

"It'll look like shit." 

"Eh, it'll match my looks." She said, smiling. 

"Huh?" Studying her, he gave her a confused look.

Robin could feel like she dug herself into a hole. What a stupid thing to say. It made her sound as if she was chasing for clout. "Nothing." She laughed, not an ounce of humour in it. 

"You don't look like shit." 

She looked back at him but he averted his gaze as soon as they made eye-contact. He sounded sincere, or maybe she just imagined it. 

"Thanks." She answered lamely. 

~~~~

She could tell that the sun had settled by the darkness that enveloped them. The rain was still pouring down, making it look and sound as if it will never stop. It was even colder now and she was grateful that Daryl offered to start a fire. She helped him find some branches that were still dry inside the crestfallen shack. She then handed them to him and watched as he created sparks. It was like there was nothing he couldn't do. 

They both sat around the fire holding out their hands to warm them up. It felt delightful as she felt her hands heat up. And she couldn't help but take a peek at the man sitting next to her. They sat close together, their knees almost touching. Maybe it was because she has been so deprived of human contact that she thought he looked kinda good in this light. The light the fire assisted made him look even better and his eyes were soft and his hair was almost completely dry. 

She once again found herself wondering what he's been through. He seems very rough, very harsh. But after the times they've been together she's found out that he isn't very harsh. It's just his way of being, his way of trying to protect himself. Sort of like she does. She wondered what made him like that in the first place. She picked up that his parents must have been a bit out of the ordinary, too, as he understood what she was feeling about her mother the other day. 

He sighed next to her and let his hands drop to his lap. She decided that she has to ask something. She has to know and if he refuses to tell her, that was that. Nothing more she could do, but she had to at least try.

She, too, let her hands drop to her lap. "How long have you known Rick for?" 

Daryl doesn't move to look at her. He just stares into the fire and for a moment she thought he wouldn't answer. "We met in Atlanta." 

"That's quite a ride from here." She says, not quite sure what else to say. He simply grunts and continues to look at the flames. So she asks another question. "Were you many people in Atlanta? I mean, in a group." 

"Isn't that obvious? We lose someone every day." He deadpanned. Leaving her quite speechless - feeling dumb.

"I... guess you're right. Sorry." She pushed her long, black hair behind her ear. 

Hearing him swallow, he stuck out his hands again by the fire. "You been all by yourself the entire time?"

Shit. That was a loaded question. Where should she even begin? Should she tell him the truth about what happened? What happened to the people she cared so dearly about and how much it hurt when she lost them? She knew that he would listen. He was kind like that. But it was almost too much to tell. She could start by telling him what she was comfortable with. Because she was afraid that if she talked about it, her nightmares would come back. 

So she took a deep breath to steady her voice. "No, I was with a group before. Me and four other guys and a woman. So six people in total. I found them about a week after the outbreak." 

He nodded, obviously understanding what would later happen to them. If she wasn't with them anymore, something bad must've happened. "Where'd you find 'em?" He questioned.

"By a road. They were taking a break from walking. It was in the middle of the summer, after all. I was naive back then and just walked up to them and scared the shit outta them." She chuckled at the memory, still seeing their startled faces in front of her. "They took me in. I was very lucky. I don't think I would've made it if I hadn't found them." 

Daryl looked at her, and when she looked back he didn't avert his gaze. The fire crackled before them and the rain thudded against the roof. His blue eyes bore into hers and she felt a blush rise on her cheeks before she looked away. Maybe that was stupid of her, too look away, now when she was finally getting through to him. But it was a nice feeling. A feeling of butterflies in your stomach even though you didn't know why. Not knowing why you're suddenly thinking that the guy sitting next to you is very good looking. 

She made a bold decision then. She took his hand in hers. She didn't know why she did it, but it felt right. She felt when he became shocked and confused but he didn't shove her off. He let her engulf it in hers and place it between them. They didn't talk or look at each other. She just kept a light grip around his large hand. And she couldn't help but smile when he squeezed it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ooohh some feelings are blooming


	12. Michonne

Robin pushed open the door, letting in the daylight. The rain had stopped an hour ago but they decided to stay just for a little while longer just in case it started again. The ground was muddy and several trees have fallen. No leaves were left on any of the trees and no walkers were around. 

"It's clear." She reported, letting Daryl who was standing behind her know. He walked past her and inspected the area. He nodded at her and they were on their way back to the prison. 

She was still on the lookout for animals to shoot as they didn't find any before. They had been in that shack for the night and tried their best to keep warm. But she didn't see any birds, squirrels or does. Everything was gone, it seemed like. And as she looked over at Daryl he appeared to be thinking the same thing. 

The boots on her feet were filthy with wet mud and made it much harder for her to walk properly and they made awful noises as they hit the ground. The man with her was only looking ahead of them, not even acknowledge that she was there. But she guessed he had more important things to think of other than her. She didn't have to be selfish. 

Walker remains were found hither and thither. It probably meant that many of those walkers who pushed against the fences have died, hopefully. But the wall? Did the wall that people have worked so hard for fallen? Shit. 

"Hey, Daryl." She tried to get his attention. "Do you think that the wall is still standing?" 

It was like he hadn't thought about it because when she asked, his eyebrows creased and his eyes became worried. He shook his head, not knowing what to answer. "Hope not." 

He had a hand on the strap of his crossbow around the shoulder and one at the ready to grab the knife in a belt around his waist. She wondered if he thought it was awkward around them. When she grabbed his hand while they sat at the fire, he didn't shove her off - but that didn't mean that he wanted it. Perhaps he just didn't know how to tell her that he was uncomfortable with her holding his hand. Or maybe he did like it and he was just flustered about it. In all honesty, she didn't know what to think of it. She didn't know why she did it but it just felt right at the time. Maybe it was because she needed to feel something - someone, or she thought it was what seemed suitable. It was hard to read Daryl, but it just felt like everything went so smoothly at the time and that her grabbing his hand was to show that she appreciated him. Friends need that - to be comforted. 

Either way, they continued to walk until the prison slowly came into their view. The wall was standing still but it looked a little wonky. She has never been so happy to be back there. Even though it was kind of nice to spend the night with a friend it felt safer here. When they approached the front gates she heard people calling for someone. Only a couple of seconds later did Rick appear. He ran down from the hill that the prison was located on and all the way down to the gates. He had a huge, relieved smile on his lips and almost looked close to tears. 

The former cop opened the gates for them and quickly ran up to where they were standing. "You're back! I thought you was gone fo' good." He looked from Daryl to Robin.

Crossbow-man looked to the sky and then to Rick. "The goddamn storm caught us. Damn near swallowed us." He scoffed, looking frustrated. 

"Daryl led us to a shack. We stayed there overnight." Robin looked appreciatively at Daryl. 

Rick smiled and welcomed them inside. Robin was quick to get inside to get something to drink. Some fresh water would do the trick. Listening to the rain didn't just make you have to pee, but it made ya thirsty too. She knew that water could be found in B block and headed there first. When she saw the jug her mouth went completely dry along with her throat. Quickly, she poured some water into an old mug that has probably been used by tens of other people. 

"Slow down or you're going to drown." Glenn chuckled by the entrance. 

Robin continued to gulp down water and gave Glenn the middle finger while she was at it. When she was finished she exhaled a content sigh. "Shit. Water is really beneficial." 

Glenn sat down by one of the tables and smoothed out a map across it. Robin moved over to him and peeked over his shoulder at what he was looking at. It was a map of Woodbury. 

"Where did you get that?" 

He sighed and put a hand over his face. Groaning, he answered, "While you and Daryl were gone a woman showed up."

"Oh?" She said, surprised. "During the storm? How'd she get here?" 

"Well, she's sort of pulling a 'you'" He remarked. 

"A 'me'?" 

"Yes, where she barely speaks and when she does it's just... taunts. But either way, her name is Michonne. She knows Andrea." 

Andrea. The blonde woman who showed up when she had just gotten here. "Really? How?" 

Glenn pointed at the map. "The only thing she said was that they were at one point at Woodbury. But that she decided to leave because she had a bad feeling about the place." He frowned, looking like he was trying to figure something out. "But why didn't Andrea tell us that she was with her?" 

Robin shrugged and sat down next to him. The map was crinkled and there appeared to be a coffee stain in the middle. "Maybe she just thought it was insignificant - because, at the time, it was." 

"Yeah, yeah..." 

"Are you alright?" 

"Stressed. I mean it's impossible to not be." 

"I know. Hopefully, everything will just... turn out okay for us." 

He breathed a deep breath and smiled at her. She smiled back and patted him on the shoulder. Everyone was worried. Just like Glenn said, it's impossible to not be. Not knowing when your friends or family could die by war is scary. She's never met Philip Blake before but she sure as hell despise him.


	13. A scandalous feeling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn't completely canon. Maggie and Glenn weren't kidnapped by Merle, for example. I'm just doing my own thing and hopefully, you'll like that. Also sorry that this took a while to get out, I had to rewatch a couple of episodes to remember how it all went down, lol. And how they get into Woodbury isn't the same as in the series. I just went with what I thought would work the best with this chapter. :D

"Hey, Robin." 

A hand on her shoulder made her spin around. She was greeted by Rick who looked like a zombie at this point. "Yeah?" 

"Would you mind stayin' here while some of us go on a little... trip?" He hesitated. 

She glanced sideways, feeling uncomfortable at his jittery state. "What trip?" 

He ran a hand over his stubble and gave her a weak grin. "We're goin' to Woodbury." 

Robin raised her eyebrows at him. This couldn't end well. What if they decide to attack the prison while was he's gone? And what the hell would they need at Woodbury? It seemed sketchy. "Why are you suddenly heading to Woodbury? Isn't that a bit... dumb?" 

Rick's eyes faltered and he looked close to tears. "We need to try and take out the governor. I've got a couple of people ready to fight." He added. 

She felt angry. Angry that she wasn't allowed to come with them. If anything, she should be there. She's good with a bow and she's good at sneaking around. That's how she's survived this long. And she's earned her place. She's proven that she can be trusted. 

It was all bullshit. 

"Why can't I come?" 

"Well," He was the one who looked uncomfortable now, "It's dangerous and you don't even know the guy."

Robin scoffed loudly, suddenly furious. "What the fuck? It's dangerous? Obviously! Everything is dangerous nowadays! I can help and you know it. You're just... I don't know what you are but it's all bullshit and you know it, Rick!"

The man looked around them, looking like he wanted to retire. He rolled his eyes and wiped his forehead. "Fine." 

"Really?" She hadn't expected that all. Perhaps having mood swings could be helpful at certain times. 

"Yes. If you just follow us and make sure you ain't... dyin'."

Robin bit her lip and smirked. "Not dying is how I've gotten this far." 

~~~~

Robin approached Rick, Daryl, Michonne and a man she doesn't recognize. Rick immediately starts to explain how they're going to do this. They're going to take a car and drive as far as they can before they have to walk the rest of the way, simply so that the residents of Woodbury won't become alarmed at the sound of a car. Then they'll try to sneak in and take out the Governor.

She was actually surprised that Michonne was with them. And maybe a bit cynical about it, too. Rick is still warming up to her, but he trusts Michonne enough to let her come with them on such an important quest? But then again, Michonne has lived in Woodbury for a short while so she must know the layout. That was smart, actually. She could be like their map. 

Robin wanted to believe that it would be an easy task. Sneak in, find Philip, kill Philip, sneak out. But nothing was ever that simple. Everything would probably spiral and someone would end up on the ground bleeding out. 

"Us four will take the car while Daryl takes his beloved bike." Rick declared and moved to the beaten-down car. Robin even wondered if it would take them all the way, it looks like expired milk - if that makes sense.

Robin took the seat behind the unknown man and Rick sat behind the wheel. Michonne plopped down beside Robin and placed her long sword between her legs. Robin had only brought her bow, she wasn't any good with a gun or a knife. She trusted herself with a good bow to save the day. A dozen of arrows would hopefully be enough. She was hoping that she would need none, that Rick would shoot the governor and that was that. But it was very unlikely. 

Daryl drove in front of them. His bike carried him quickly down the road and Rick followed just shortly after. Robin fiddled with the hem of her shirt. She remembered once again that she needed new clothes. That the ones she was wearing were really disgusting at this point. 

"So, who's gonna kill the man?" The stranger seated before Robin asks, looking pointedly at Rick. 

He turned on the steering wheel a little and kept his gaze on the road. "Whoever gets the chance." He responds, his voice flat without any emotions whatsoever. 

Michonne kept looking out of the window on her side. No leaves were left on any of the trees and everyone was waiting for the snow to come. It'll be harsh during the winter. It'll be like the old days where humans starved to death or froze to death - history was one of Robins favourite subjects at school.

Daryl was steady on his bike, but she couldn't help but wonder how he didn't become ice in this weather. He has his vest on with a sweater underneath, but still. Robin's never been on a bike. She'd love to try it one day but she highly doubts it will ever happen. Daryl probably never lets anyone touch his bike. It was like his baby, almost. Which she thought was a little ridiculous but if that's what makes him happy, she won't judge... too much. 

"I don't think we've met before. I'm Oscar." The man in front of her tries to turn in his seat to look at her. He even tries to stretch his hand out to shake her head.

She clumsily shakes it and gives him a smile. "Robin." 

"Oh, I know who you are, when you first got to the prison it was all people talked about. You just don't who I am." He chirped, seemingly in a very good mood. But Robin was slightly put off now. 

"Right. Nobody ever talks about you, though. That's unfortunate." She answered, her voice promptly strained. 

Oscar appeared to have noticed her sudden switch in emotions because he turned back and sat down correctly in his seat again. Rick also showed to have noticed the slightly awkward conversation and quickly tries to manoeuvre to another subject.

"Ya'll remember the plan?" 

"Yes." Michonne said through gritted teeth. It made Rick look in the rearview mirror. He caught the woman's eyes and she sneered at him. Robin almost laughed, Michonne hasn't said much but her body language speaks a lot for itself. 

After about thirty minutes or so Daryl started to slow down. Rick followed his suit and pulled the car to a stop. It was by this point that Robins's heart was starting to pump a little faster. She wanted to feel that burst of energy that you get out of doing something scandalous. About doing something you shouldn't. That feeling was one of the best feelings that existed. 

Daryl approached them by the car and took an extra glance at Michonne. She threw her katana back on her back and readjusted it slightly. She looked very grim from Robins point of view. She was very gorgeous but very grim. She probably just have to get to know her first. 

"Alrigh', let's start walkin' people." Rick announces and starts to follow the road. 

Everyone followed him and kept quiet as they walked off to kill the governor. Robin has never met Philip. She doesn't even know what he looks like. He's obviously dangerous and cruel. There must be something behind it all, as to why he wants the prison. Power, maybe? Everyone wants power. 

Robin cleared her throat, "What does this guy, Philip, look like, anyway?" She asks, looking around at the different people she's with. 

"Weird." Michonne was the first to answer. And Robin couldn't help but chuckle. 

"Weird? How so?" 

"Some people just have that look. He gives off a weird vibe." She adds. And it makes sense. Robin has met her fair share of weird people. 

Rick points ahead of them. Everyone follows his finger with their eyes until it lands on a couple of walkers about 40 feet in front of them. It was quite fascinating how everyone was reaching for their weapons so quickly after having spotted the walkers. 

Robin grabs an arrow and walks faster towards them, placing her arrow by her bow and pulling her arm back as far as she can, she lets go of the arrow. It hits the walker in the forehead and it quickly falls backwards. It alerts the other ones and they start to walk towards the group. 

Daryl shoots with his crossbow and Rick uses a knife, shoving it deep into the walker's skull. Michonne slices them with her katana and Oscar kills two walkers on his own with the help of an axe that is slightly too big to use as a weapon. 

They managed to kill all of them without using a single gun. Everyone looks at each other to make sure they're all alright. Rick gives them a thumbs up and they start to walk again, after having collected the arrows that Robin and Daryl used.

Robin walks beside Daryl who wipes the arrow off on his pant leg and then puts it back. He has a little blood smudged on his cheek, almost making it look like he has applied blush to look more feminine. 

"Hm?" He looks at Robin. 

"Oh," She was caught staring, and she felt slightly embarrassed. "nothing. You just..." She points to her cheek to imply that he's the one to have something there. He doesn't get it as he just stares at her, completely puzzled. She rolls her eyes and slows him to a stop. The rest of the group keeps on walking. She licks her thumb and makes sure that he's on board with what she's about to do. He doesn't move, he just keeps on looking her in the eyes. She moves her thumb over his cheek and attempts to get the blood off his cheek. It's successful as the blood is completely gone when she removes her thumb. She takes a step back and smiles at him. Daryl smiles back - or it's more like a half-smile or smirk. But it makes her stomach flutter, nonetheless. 

"Hey, lovebirds, keep it up!" Oscar shouts from in front of them. She hears Rick's chuckling and the blush on her cheeks surface. 

"Let's go." Daryl says and heads off to keep up with the rest of them. Robin agrees and they quickly catch up with them. 

It doesn't take long until they see the buildings of Woodbury appear. Robin's mouth opens at the sight. It's like a whole town there. When Glenn showed her the map she didn't know it was going to be this big. It almost scared her how normal it looked. Like that part of the world hasn't even been touched by the apocalypse. If you'd take away the ugly walls that have been put up around the town, it looked normal.

Rick slows to a halt when they reach a wall. He looks around the corner. "Okay, two people are on watch. We gon' have to avoid them. We'll sneak in over there," He whispers and points to a section of the town that isn't as heavily secured. "Make sure to stay together." 

They're quiet as they sneak over to a piece of the wall that is quite low. On the other side is two men on the lookout. Robins's heart is beating hard and fast as she swings her legs over the wall, trying her best not to make a sound. Oscar was there to make sure she didn't fall when she was about to land. She gave him a grateful smile and moved along so that Michonne could get over it.

When everyone was inside Woodbury the snuck around the outer walls. They past through a white van. Rick carefully took a look through the windows, checking if someone was inside. He turned to the group and nodded towards the van. 

"Keys are in. A good emergency escape if we need one." He whispered, holding a machine gun in his hands. 

"We won't," Michonne whispers sharply back at him. 

Robin looks at Daryl who is currently gazing around the corners of a house. He, too, has a gun now. He looks very different with that sort of weapon in his hands. He steps over a fence that leads into a garden. She watches as he walks up to the backdoor of the house and takes a cautious peek inside. He gently tries the handle - it's unlocked. 

Robin, Rick, Oscar and Michonne steps over the fence while Daryl holds the door open for them. Rick is the first to enter making sure that it's safe.   
After a minute he waves for them to come inside. Daryl closes the door behind them. While inside, Oscar makes sure that everyone is still with them, he looks over each person, until his eyes are suddenly drawn to the very back of the house. Robin turns around and her own eyes widened. There was a man, perhaps around fifty. And before she could react, or even blink, a loud gunshot was heard around the room. Her ears screeched as she saw the man in front of her get a bullet through his head.

"Fuck." Oscar swore. 

The loud gunshot had awoken the people of Woodbury and their worried voices were clear through the walls. She looked toward Rick with wide, worried eyes only to find him with a gun pointed in the direction of where the man once stood. 

"We're gonna have to fight. We brought smoke bombs with us. Try to keep a lookout for the governor." He talks to the group. His voice is steady and he makes sure that every person is listening to him. He then took off his backpack and rummaged through it to retrieve a couple of smoke bombs. He gave a few to Daryl and told him to throw it out of the door on his command. "Stay tight. One, two, three!" 

Daryl rolled the bomb out onto the street, smoke instantly bursting out of it. People were starting to shout and question what was happening. The group took that chance to leave the house and turn right. A man who is standing on top of a bus flashes his flashlight at them.

"There they are!" 

Rick begins to shoot at him, his gun quickly spurting bullets. Everything was going downhill so quickly it was hard to keep up. People around them were terrified and the guns hurt Robins's ears. 

Rick manages to kill a guard. And in the meantime, Robin is making sure that no one is trying to shoot at them. She shouts at Rick to hurry up with the shooting as she spots a buff man charging towards them. She wishes for the man running for them would just stop, she truly doesn't want to kill him. She raises her bow and reaches for an arrow as the man is getting closer. He has a huge knife in his hand raises it above his head, ready to strike. Robin then lets go of the arrow and watches as it sinks into his head, blood spurting on the ground. 

She hears Daryl shout something and runs off when Rick is done with the men on top of the bus. They run through the smoke, trying their best to not be seen by unwanted people. Robin squints through the smoke to make sure that her own people are safe. She manages to see Oscar running just slightly ahead of her, Rick by her side and Daryl right behind her. The only one who she didn't spot was Michonne. 

Fuckity fuck fucks.

Robin continues to fire arrows at people who are shooting at them. She aims for a woman who is holding a handgun and lets go of the arrow when she feels like she's in the right position. It hits her in the chest and the woman quickly goes down. 

Daryl and Rick continue to shoot with their guns, the bullets flying out of the smoke. The sound is loud and she can barely think with all the screaming and shouting. 

"Go, go, go!" Rick shouts. 

They run towards a small opening in a building to take cover. Daryl is the last to arrive, still shooting at people. 

"We need to move." Daryl said, out of breath. He reloads his weapon. 

Oscar is breathing hard and he wipes his forehead. Robin felt like crying. This isn't what she meant by feeling something scandalous. She's only killed one person before. This is a little too much for her. 

She shakily pushes her hair behind her ears, her throat felt too dry to even talk. "Did- did anyone see Philip?" She manages to croak out. 

Rick groans, "Fuck!" 

Daryl fires a couple of shots, peaking out of the opening. "You guys go ahead, I'm gonna lay down some cover fire." He says, taking a look towards the street. 

Robin quickly shakes her head. "No! We've got to stay together! Don't go anywhere!" Her voice was shaky and filled with anxiety. She's never been in such a huge fight. Perhaps she shouldn't have come with them. Perhaps it was too dangerous for her, just like Rick had told her. 

"I'll be right behind ya!" Daryl says, finishing loading his gun. And before Robin can protest anymore he throws out another smoke bomb onto the street and runs out. "Move!" He yells for them, protecting them as they'll try to sneak away. 

Oscar takes Robin's arm and starts to run off towards the van that still got the keys in. She can't use her bow while he's got a grip around her like that so she just has to trust him. She hopes that the rapid footsteps behind her are Ricks. 

The smoke is thick and the guns are deafening. She hears Rick shout something, and then even more gunshots. But she doesn't have much time to think about that as Oscar and she reached the van. People are still firing at them and Robin ducks behind a trashcan. Her heart is about to explode and her hands are shaking to the point where she can barely hold her bow. 

Oscar climbs on top of the van, shooting at people and telling Robin to wait where she is. She doesn't move a finger until he will say otherwise. She has to trust him. 

"Robin, come here!" He yells at her. 

She runs over to him and he grabs her hand, lifting her up on to the hood of the van. When she's up he tells her to place her foot in his hand so he can hoist her up on to the roof. She does as he says, and everything was going smoothly until she heard a shout and the hand under her foot suddenly vanishes. She nearly slips off the roof but manages to get a grip on the side and hoist herself up the rest of the way. 

Laying flat on her stomach, she looks over the top, seeing Oscar lying in the grass bleeding out. She panics and starts to shout for Rick. She feels like a pussy, laying on the roof doing nothing, just shouting for a man to come help her. But she really couldn't do anything else. 

"Rick! Rick! Please, Rick!" Her voice cracks with each scream, watching as Oscar's eyes slowly shut. She manages to catch Ricks attention and he sprints off to where she is. 

Rick climbs the van and shouts for Daryl to join them, but he ignores them. He tries his best to make Daryl come back, but he still refuses to give up. 

"We have to go!" Rick shouts at Robin who is now crouching. 

She shakes her adamantly, "No. No way. We're not leaving without him!" 

Rick's face falters and looks back to Daryl. Robin does too, and the last thing she sees of Daryl is him being dragged away by two men. 

"No!" She shouts, tears welling in her eyes. She wanted it all to end. To go back in time and tell Rick that it was an idiotic, stupid, thick-witted plan - that it would never work. 

Rick points towards a red building where Michonne comes sprinting out. He waves for her to come over where they are and she obliges. She jumps on top of the van and Rick helps her up to the roof. Robin gasps at the state of Michonne. 

Her face is bloody and her upper lip is swollen. Her arm is bleeding and she has a black eye. Rick is also surprised but doesn't waste any time on it.

"Daryl got taken. We have to leave, now!" 

Michonne nods and glides down at the end of the van and lands on her feet. Rick lets Robin go after her and she lands safely on the ground, too. The former cop joins them and they run off into the forest, completely forgotten the fact that they were supposed to take the van.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just a very short chapter to fill in for the next one that will hopefully come out in two days. My life is pretty hectic at the moment so I'm sorry that I've been so very slow with updating. I actually feel stressed lol. ANYWAYS, here is some good angst for yall who are reading still. 
> 
> (I haven't proofread this one)

"We have to go back." Robins's voice cracked with each word. The car rumbled and drove them further away from him. It was well past midnight now and the darkness surrounded them. Her hands were grim and her cheeks were stained with tears. She heard Rick sigh and swallow hard. 

"Of course, we'll go back for him." He said, steering the wheel, looking directly ahead. 

Robin thought she was stronger than this. She thought she could handle it but this was so big. Never having been in a fight this big, it was a proper shock for her mind and body. She was almost ashamed by the way she reacted. Wanting to show them that she was strong and brave, but instead crying and sobbing like a baby hurt her self esteem. 

Michonne looked half beaten to death and Rick looked like usual - tired and worn. It just went south too quickly for anyone to fully comprehend what was happening and the consequences were big. Fucking Oscar died. It wasn't fair. Nothing was fair any more. They went in there thinking that it was going to go somewhat okay and left with two people gone. And Robin killed multiple people which led her to feel extremely low. She killed someone once and she never wanted to do that again.

~~~~

The prison truly felt like a prison again. A couple of hours ago the prison almost felt like a home, but now, it was just a place to hide. The bed felt extra stiff that night. The few walkers that still surrounded the fence sounded extra loud and her breathing seemed very heavy. 

It felt like shit to have left Daryl behind. But if they had gone after him they would without a doubt have been taken too, considering the state that they were all in. But still, leaving Daryl in that place was horrendous. He might even be dead by this point. 

Robin didn't know exactly when she started to care so much for Daryl. Maybe it was when he helped her retrieve her bow, or it was when they were locked inside the shed during the storm or perhaps it was when she helped him get rid of the blood on his face. She practically knew nothing about him while he knew a couple of things about her. 

She swore that if - when - they get Daryl back, she would get to know him better.


	15. A fight

"We'll sneak in through the back, find Daryl and leave." 

Robin snorted at Rick, feeling unmotivated by his plan. "'cause sneaking in worked so well for us last time, eh?" She shook her head and plopped down on one of the chairs and rubbed her hands against her face - willing herself to not think about everything that could go wrong... again.

Rick, who looked close to tears, pointed to the map that looked ancient and looked at Michonne who was standing next to Robin, "This leads to the 'arena', correct?" 

The woman next to Robin nodded. "Yeah, you can get through there, it's very open but it's rarely used."

Robin cackled, maybe it was because of exhaustion and shock or it was a sign of hopelessness. Either way, she shot up from the chair and flailed her arms around. "We have no fucking idea what we're doing! This - this is insane! We lost Oscar last time. We can't go through this again! I'm not going through this again!"

Oscars death was tragic. She had just met him and exchanged a few words but she still felt sorry for him. And a part of Robin felt like she was to blame for it. If she had gotten her act together she would've been able to get up that van by herself which would mean that Oscar could focus on protecting himself from shooters. 

She hasn't admitted it yet, though. She hasn't admitted that she felt like a baby for reacting the way she did to the fight. Because she truly thought she could handle it, she really did. But when shit hit the fan, everything just collapsed. She felt ashamed that Rick saw her like that. It was just embarrassing. 

"That won't happen, Robin." He tried to soothe, "You and I will go. Just us two which means that the chance of someone being spotted is low. You're good with a bow which will certainly help if something were to happen."

Robin stared at the wall, trying to not let tears escape. Was she really this weak? Really? 

Michonne and Rick kept on talking about multiple exits and possible hideouts. It had only been a day since Daryl got captured and Oscar's death, but it felt like it had only been a minute. Daryl was special in Robins's eyes. He was a very good listener. He was kind in a way that she could appreciate. 

She really wanted him back.

~~~~

The walls around Woodbury looked more fragile than yesterday. The dark sky made it look haunted, even. The second she opened the door to the car and stepped out she heard voices. She heard loud, excited voices. They shouted, but it wasn't out of fear. Rick cursed under his breath and waved for her to follow him. The voices grew louder the closer they came to the arena. A yellowish van was placed against a wall which Rick helped her climb. 

"You good?" She whispered as he swung his leg over the trunk. 

"Yeah." 

She carefully looked over the wall. She saw people. A lot of people. They were standing around in a circle. In the middle of the circle was what they came for. Daryl was fighting a man. It looked rough and she instantly reached for her bow but Rick slowed her down. He reached around for his backpack and pulled out two small guns. 

"You ever used one of these?" 

Robin licked her bottom lip and tried to focus without all the shouting. "I - I don't - I don't know how to use one correctly."

He gave her a simple nod and handed it over to her, it felt heavy from her usual weapon. He checked the other gun out before steadying it in his hand. "Put your finger on the trigger and aim for one of those lights," He pointed to the arena, "then pull." 

Robin wanted to object, to tell him that it wouldn't work. And maybe she would've if it wasn't for the sight before her. Maybe she would've if it wasn't Daryl in the fight. Maybe.

"On three... One...Two...Three!"

She did as he had told her and aimed for the light. She would've missed if she aimed just an inch higher. She recoiled at the sound and looked over at what Rick was doing. All the people who had been in the circle ran away in different directions. 

She saw Daryl run off with his opponent and wondered why the fuck he would do that. "What now?" She yelled at Rick. 

"Follow me!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo, I'm sorry that no updates came this week. One of my pets are really sick and won't make it much longer. So I've just been spending time with my pet instead.  
> If anyone is still reading this, I hope you'll like this. It's just to get me started again. Like a warmup! :)


	16. Can I hug you?

Rick guided her towards a house by the end of the street, holding his gun firmly in his hand. Robin followed, looking in every direction for any approaching people. It was then she saw Daryl and the unknown man sprint inside a building just a couple of feet away.

"Rick! Hold up!" She got his attention and pointed to where Daryl had disappeared. "In there!" She waved for him to follow her and ran as fast as she could to the building that Daryl was in. 

People were running around the place like crazy. It made it harder to navigate around the street. They eventually got to the building that looked very run-down. Robin slung open the door and ran inside. She slowed to a halt when she spotted Daryl just at the end of a hallway. She stood rooted to the floor, heaving. She heard Rick close the door behind her before her reflexes caught up to her. Quick as fire, she grabbed an arrow from her quiver and quickly armed her bow, aiming it at the man standing next to Daryl.

"No, Robin!" Daryl stepped closer to her, his hand in front of him, trying to get her to put the bow down. 

She didn't mind him, just kept on aiming the arrow at the big man standing in front of her. He was robust and had white stubble growing. "What's your name, huh?" 

"Merle. Now, are ya really goin' to shoot me or is this jus' to show off?" He said, a smirk playing at his lips. 

Robin exhaled and strained her bow even more. A hand on her shoulder made her looked behind her - Rick gave her a calming look and planted another hand on her arm, pushing it down so she wasn't aiming at Merle anymore.

"We know him." He said, looking at the man in front of them. If Robin wasn't mistaken she could swear that she saw some sort of disgust or dislike for Merle in Rick's eyes.

She looked at Daryl who had been quiet for a while. She was breathing hard, adrenaline still pumping through her veins. "You know him?" 

Daryl looked at her for a couple of seconds before slowly nodding. He looked back at Merle and then back to her. "He's my brother." 

She glanced at Rick as to say 'is he for real?'. Rick nodded, letting her know that he was telling the truth. She shifted her weight on her feet and let her arm that was holding the bow rest by her side. It was weird, she thought. First, she didn't know that Daryl had any siblings. And second, Merle and he looked almost nothing alike. The only thing that they had in common, physically wise, was their southern accent - although she would argue that Merle's accent wasn't as pretty as Daryls.

Merle looked at Robin, eyeing her up. "What's yer name, pretty thang?"

She scoffed, turning back to Rick, "We should leave. We can't stay here." 

He opened his mouth to say something but just then a cough came from down the hall. All of their attention switched and Rick started to walk towards where the sound came from. Everyone followed, turning right around a corner which led to a door. Another cough was heard but this time it was much weaker. 

Rick, who was listening carefully through the door put his hand on the doorknob. With his gun at the ready, he pushed open the door with so much power it hit the wall behind and made a booming noise throughout the chamber. 

Robin, who stood with her bow at the ready, couldn't see anything from where she was standing. There was no shooting and Rick seemed confused until he entered the room.

"Andrea, what - what happened?" His voice was soft as he knelt down.

Robin stepped inside the room. Inside was a chair and a dead walker with blood around the mouth. She turned around to Rick, who was kneeling in front of the woman named Andrea. Robin gasped when she saw how serious her injury was. A huge chunk of the side of her neck was missing. 

Andrea gulped for air, clearly at her last minute. Rick looked sorry for her and took a closer look at the wound. He tried to talk to her and she vaguely responded with a few words each time. It was horrible. Robin didn't know Andrea at all but it was still sad. Really fucking sad. 

The woman looked so small propped against the wall that Robin wanted to hold her. Hold her and tell her that it'll all be over soon. Tears pricked at her eyes. Seeing Rick shed tears was odd. 

Robin jumped a little when she felt a large hand on her lower back but relaxed when she found Daryl next to her. He guided her out of the room and into the hallway instead. She sat down on one of the big boxes that were standing against the walls. She heard Merle say something from within the room but couldn't decipher what it was he said. She was also surprised when she heard Andrea chuckle.

"Robin..." 

She glanced up, Daryl was leaning against the wall in front of her, watching her solemnly. He looked sad, too. She tried to smile at him, to show him how fucking happy she is that he's with her - them again. But she just couldn't. So much has happened in the 24 hours that her brain hasn't fully caught up yet. So instead she nodded at him and let her tears slowly stream down her cheeks. 

After a minute or so, Rick and Merle exited the room. She thought that Andrea had left the world before Rick explained that he let Andrea have his gun to end it. 

It didn't take long before a gunshot echoed throughout the building. 

Robin cringed.

~~~~

Sneaking behind a yellow house, they managed to escape. They walked in the direction that the car was parked. And on this walk, she learnt that Merle had a big mouth. He talked a lot. He was very honest and very vulgar. 

"Tell me, how long can those beautiful legs walk?" He yapped while Robin tried her best to ignore him. 

Daryl looked pissed, Rick looked depressed and Merle looked like a fucking maniac with only one hand. 

"Can you shut the fuck up before I put an arrow through your thick ass skull?" She snapped, stopping in her tracks and stared him down. 

Rick sighed while Merle laughed. A laugh where it isn't really a laugh but an ' I'll keep going for as long as I want just to annoy you' kind of laugh. 

Daryl told his brother to back off before taking Robin by her arm and stalked off with her. Rick and Merle spoke behind them - only a few words and it appeared very tense and very awkward. Robin was grateful that Daryl told Merle off. Maybe she was dumb or something, but she couldn't help but feel a little special when Daryl told his own brother off for her. 

She was really losing it, wasn't she? 

Was it a crush? 

Did she have a crush on... Daryl Dixon?"

~~~~

In the car it was silent. Merle seemed to have worn himself out a little as he rested his head against the window. Rick drove carefully as to not make to many sounds to attract any walkers. And Daryl sat in the backseat. 

"I'm sitting in the back." He had said after Robin had announced that she's sitting in the backseat. 

Merle had laughed at that, jesting his brother. "Ooh, you two screwin' or somethin'? You finally gettin' laid, little brother?." He winked at Robin.

"Fuck you, Merle," Robin had said and sat down, hoping that none of them noticed the blush on her cheeks. 

Now, ten minutes later when things were quiet she could finally be happy that Daryl was back. She wanted to tell him that she was glad that he's back safely but it felt wrong when there were other people around. She wanted to tell him privately. She wanted to hug him too. Was that weird? would it be weird to hug him? No, he was a friend after all... 

Maybe she would hug him. Maybe. She has held his hand after all - and that went well. 

"What happened anyway out there? Saw you two fightin'." Rick broke the silence. 

Daryl looked out the window, maybe to let his brother answer. And of course, his brother did answer. 

"That fella, the Governor, forced us to be fightin' for entertainment." He said, answering his question. 

Robin picked at the dirt under her nails. "Was he the one to do that to Andrea? Did Philip kill her?" 

"He did," Rick responded and turned left at an intersection. "She told me. The walker that was layin' on the floor - he killed him too, he let him turn." His voice was gruff and as he looked in the rearview mirror, she saw how his eyes were red-rimmed. 

She shook her head in pure disbelief. This guy was a psycho. 

Glancing over at Daryl who was looking out the window, still, she placed her hand on his knee to show him that she cared for him. But he immediately jerked his knee away which made Robin retreat. They made eye contact and Robin was about to apologise when he looked away.

Fuck! 

She felt embarrassed. She shouldn't have done that. She shouldn't have done that! Feeling abashed, she sunk further down into her seat, her cheeks reddening. That was a total fuck up. 

~~~~

When they arrived at the prison Glenn and Maggie were there to greet them. It didn't take long before Carl was there to hug his father and tell him how he had helped with offing the walkers at the fence. Glenn looked in pure shock at Merle as he stepped out of the vehicle. Merle, who noticed his expression chuckled and opened his arms as though he expected a hug from him.

"Chinaman! How good it is to see your face again!" He exclaimed as Glenn grimaced. 

Robin shook her head at him and headed inside with the rest of the gang - and Merle. 

It was cool inside the prison as they all sat down by a table in A Block. Carl sat in Ricks lap as he toyed with an empty gun. Once again, Robin was irked by seeing a young child with a deadly weapon - playing with a deadly weapon. 

Daryl stood by a wall while Merle checked the place out. She heard Maggie ask Glenn who he was and give the man wandering around a look of distrust. Michonne showed up as well with her Katana on her back, her eyes as dark as usual. 

Rick inhaled a strong breath before he spoke to everyone in the room. "I'll start by addressing the obvious - Daryl is back alongside his Brother who we thought" He looked at Merle pointedly, "was dead in Atlanta." Merle scoffed and took a stand next to Daryl, crossing his arms to show that he wasn't pleased. 

Michonne placed her hands on the table, "I have some news, too." She looked around the room to make sure everyone was listening to what she was about to say. "When for the first time we tried to take out the Governor I snuck off into his office. I found..." She faltered and took a deep breath before continuing, "I found a dead girl. She was a walker that he had tied to a wall. I killed her when I found out it was his daughter." She looked at Rick now, their eyes meeting. "He saw me and tried to kill me. He almost did too. I managed to wound him by stabbing him in the eye." 

Robin listened as her story got darker and darker. Was it bad that she felt a bit sorry for Philip? He had lost his daughter and wasn't ready to say goodbye. It was sad, so Robin didn't blame herself for feeling a little sorry for the guy.

Maggie was the first one to speak up after her explanation ended. "Why didn't you tell us that until now?" 

Michonne pointed to her eye where a bruise was slowly fading. "I told you that I got into a fight." 

"But not with who," Glenn remarked.

"Alright," Rick carefully shoved Carl off his lap and stood up. "I think we all should get some rest. We should be ready for when he notices that Daryl is gone."

Murmurs were heard around the room before everyone went off in different directions to their bunks. Robin stalked off to her cell and threw herself onto the bed before realising that it was basically just cement. 

She crossed her legs and stared at the ceiling above her. 

What was going to happen now? Philip will definitely want Daryl back, even if it's just to kill him. And he'll know that Merle went with him to the prison. It was weird to think that at any point, they could all explode. Weird how you have to think these days. 

Don't go outside without a weapon or a walker might kill you!

Don't go inside that warehouse or someone might shoot you!

Don't tell someone to fuck off or they might shoot an arrow through your head!

It was almost funny how bizarre the world has become. Robin's teachers always said that she had a strange sense of humour. On another note, her humour was just her being brutally honest. 

"Hey." 

She jumped almost a foot above her bed when she heard him. Daryl was standing by the opening, holding a sandwich in his hand. She remembered how awkward she had made it in the car when she tried to console him.

"Hiya. Is everything...alright?" 

"Yeah, jus' wanted to give ya this. You look hungry." He said as he handed her a sandwich with eggs on it. 

She couldn't help but smile a little. "I look hungry?" 

"Mhm, and by tha' I mean that you look like ya haven' eaten in days." 

Snorting at his comment, she placed the sandwich on the small table she has placed inside her bunk. It was a fragile table, but sturdy enough to hold a water bottle and a sandwich - which was all she needed. 

She rubbed her hands together, not knowing what to do. Should she say something now? Yeah, she should. This was her chance. "I'm happy you're back, Daryl." 

He gave her a small smile, barely noticeable. "Me too." 

She nodded. What now? Fuck! It was like they were both too awkward to socialize like normal people with a functioning brain. 

"I'm sorry for Merle. He don't know when to shut his fuckin' mouth." He said, leaning against the doorframe. 

Shrugging it off she said, "Not your fault. You don't have to be sorry about him." She saw that he still felt guilty and she genuinely felt bad for Daryl. He didn't need to waste his energy on feeling bad about his own brother. "Seriously, Daryl. Don't. It's not your job to feel sorry about him. I'm just happy that you're back safely. I've missed you." The last part just rolled off her tongue before she knew what she was saying. His eyebrows rose the slightest for just a second and if it wasn't so dark outside and the sun shone, maybe she would've seen him blushing. 

Sometimes you just have to say fuck it. Like when you jump from a bridge into freezing cold water, or you're having a bad day and say fuck it and drink till you can't walk. Or maybe you say fuck it and tell your boss to simply stuff it. Robin decided to think fuck it instead. She got up from her bed and walked up to the man standing by the door. She looked up into his eyes. She could feel that he was tense and that he was out of his comfort zone. 

"Can I hug you?"


	17. A long peck on the lips

He stood rooted to the spot, looking very uncomfortable with how close she was standing in front of him. She thought that maybe she should back off but she felt like she's come too far to back down now. But her braveness had worn out and she started to panic when he didn't answer her. 

"Can I...?" She probed, hoping he would come to a conclusion. 

Looking her in the eyes he said, "Yeah." 

She wanted to laugh. Laugh at the fact that his answer was 'Yeah' after having thought about it for almost a minute. But she accepted it and slowly extended her arms to envelop his waistline. Her arms closed around his waist and she laid her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. She felt his arms gently take a hold of her. 

Robin wanted to blame it on that she hasn't had any human contact for so long and that's why she loved the way his arms closed around her form and that his heartbeat was so calming, but a little thought back in her brain said that she might have something else for him. But even if she did feel something for Daryl Dixon, she wasn't ready. She wasn't ready to move on from the one person she ever loved and lost. She almost felt guilty for almost thinking about feeling something for Daryl. 

She could enjoy him as a close friend and she hoped that he saw her as a close friend, too. 

"Do you feel alright? I mean after all that's just happened, I mean." Robin asked, still hugging him. She could feel his chest expanding against her own when he took a deep breath. And she almost felt disappointed when he slowly backed away. When she got a good look at him again, he looked very, very tired. He also looked awkward. Like the kind of awkward when you don't know what to do or say. She felt like they have those moments often, her and him; awkwardness seemed to be their main personality. 

He shrugged, "Don't know."

Robin pursed her lips, not knowing how much she wanted to push him. "I heard what Rick said. that you thought that Merle was dead way back in Atlanta. It must've been a shock to see him again."

"I'm happy tha' he's back." It almost sounded like he was trying to convince himself that he was happy about it, but she shrugged it off. 

"Of course, of course. I just don't want you...I don't know."

"What?"

"I just mean that you look exhausted."

"Do I look as exhausted as you do hungry?" 

She chuckled and crossed her arms, raising her nose up in the air defiantly. "Was that an invite to an Insult competition? Cause I assure you that I'll win. Big time." 

"Nah." He shook his head and fought off a smile. "But I am exhausted, so..." 

"Get some rest. Much has happened recently." 

"Yeah." 

He didn't move from his spot by the doorframe but just stood there looking like he wanted to say something but not figuring out the words. Robin noticed and raised her eyebrows to show that she was interested in listening to what he has to say. But he didn't say anything. 

Turning around while muttering 'goodnight', he quickly left the scene. Robin frowned but understood. It's not always easy to form words for what you want to say because when you do say something without having thought about it, it could turn out all wrong and everything just becomes shit. 

She took the sandwich from the rooky table and chomped it down before getting into bed again, pulling the thin blanket over herself. 

~~~~ 

"Hey, kiddo." 

Carl looked over his shoulder and smiled when he saw her. "Hey, what're you doing here?" 

"Am I not allowed to be here?" She scoffed half-heartedly, sitting down in one of the chairs in A-block. 

He shrugged and went back looking at Judith sleeping in her basket. "You're in C-Block a lot." 

Chuckling, she looked at Judith, too. She looked very innocent. That little kid had no idea what she was growing up to; what horrors awaited her. Robin wondered why the fuck you would ever choose to have a kid when the world is this fucked. It almost made her angry. No one deserved to live in a world like this. 

Cooing, Judith wiggled a little before opening her eyes. She had big blue eyes with long eyelashes, a round little belly and small pink lips. She was the cutest thing Robin has ever seen. Her anger went away quickly and was replaced by awe that someone could've created a human. And that a woman has carried this baby inside of her stomach.

Women are fucking awesome.

"Do you want to feed her?" 

"Excuse me?" Robin asked, startled.

His eyes shifted around the room before they landed on her again, "Like, feed her...? With a bottle?" 

"Oh," She said, feeling very dumb and slightly flustered. "No thanks, I'm not very good with kids." She laughed awkwardly. 

Carl shrugged and went over to grab some baby formula and make food for his little sister. While he did that, Robin felt torn. She would've loved to feed Judith and hold her and feel the weight in her arms but she was too afraid of breaking her. Just holding a baby can kill it, right? Robin didn't want to break something so beautiful. She's broken enough beautiful things in her life. 

Carl arrived with a bottle in his hand which he shook before picking up Judith. He sat down in a chair, and with a little trouble, he managed to position Judith that was comfortable for both of them. He angled the bottle upright and gently pressed it against her lips. She accepted it and started to eat. 

Robin was pleasantly surprised at Carls demeanour towards Judith. He was so gentle and knew exactly what to do and he didn't seem scared to break her which she found insane. Judith is so tiny and he's just picking her up like it's the easiest thing in the world when it could actually hurt her. 

She watched as the boy fed his little sister, feeling content with just watching a little boy care for his sister. But, in a world like this, you don't get to unwind or just be content.

"What're you guys doin', huh?" Rick entered, smiling at the scene, too.

His son smiled back at him and explained that he had prepared the food for her just as he had been told to do, looking very proud of himself. Rick patted him on the shoulder and turned his attention to Robin instead.

"You got any plans for today?" 

Robin shook her head no and waited for Rick to give her a list of boring and shitty things to do for the day. 

"Good, I need you on watch this afternoon in the north watchtower." 

"So, in like thirty minutes?"

"Yes." 

"Fine, why don't you just make me a god damn list of the dullest shit to do? Huh?" She ranted, not liking that Rick didn't think of her as an equal. Maybe he shouldn't, though. The way she reacted at Woodbury wasn't too great, to be honest. She was a mess then and she admitted it. 

He gave her a warning look before taking Judith from Carl's lap when she was done feeding. "Robin, I need you on watch. That's that." He said and left, ending the discussion. 

"Fine!" She shouted after him. She didn't want to be mad at Rick but when he used her as an extra person just to do the most basic things she couldn't help but feel useless. She was good at hunting. She could be useful when it came to hunting now when winter was here. She knew how to hunt and that was basically the only useful thing she could do. Why couldn't he let her hunt goddammit?

~~~~

Basically, no walkers were left around the fence anymore and those walkers that were around the fence were too slow and weak to actually do any harm. But she made sure to look out for any living things too. Either if it was an animal to kill for food or if it was a human to kill for protection, didn't matter. 

The sky was grey and it was cold in the tower. Not having brought any blankets with her, she was left only with the worn-out jacket that she's used since the beginning. She shuddered and waited for the sun to set so she could switch with the person who was next on watch. It's not like the job was any fun. Mostly nothing ever happens and if something does happen it's always when Robin isn't on watch. 

Stupid fucking luck again.

She sat down in the camping chair that someone had placed and ran her hand through her hair. Her hair was filthy as hell and several tangles. Her hair was naturally quite flat but it was bushy by all the different kinds of filth that have sought refuge there. Robins's hair was black but almost looked grey because of all the shit that was in it. Her grandmother used to say that her hair matched her dark eyes. It always made Robin happy when her granny complimented her. She seriously needed to wash herself and her hair, though. 

As she pulled her jacket tighter around her chest, the door suddenly opened. Alert, she turned around and expected the person who was on watch next to be standing by the door but was instead greeted by Daryl. 

She noticed that he had put on a thicker jacket now and wore fingerless gloves. 

"I thought it was the person who would take over after me. I didn't expect you." It almost came out a bit gruff from her lips for some reason unknown. 

"Nah, I just wanted to see ya." He spoke but he seemed to regret what he said because he shook his head and tried to readjust, "I mean - Rick told me tha' you weren't very happy with bein' on watch." 

"Oh." 

"Yeah" 

The awkward silence came forth once again. She looked around the place and tried to think about what she should say now. It was almost hard to think of something that would make sense to say. It wouldn't be that fun to talk about the weather as he obviously knows that it's cold as fuck outside. 

"Do you want to come in?" She asked as if she was inviting him into her home. 

"Do you want me to?" 

Taken aback by his question, she opened and closed her mouth, once again thinking about what to say. "Sure, I wouldn't mind." 

Daryl stepped inside and laid his beloved crossbow on the floor next to the wall where he stood. She remembered that there was only one chair and cringed when she didn't know how to tell him that he might have to sit on the floor if she would take the chair. 

"I'ss alright, I ain't staying very long" He must have noticed what she was thinking. He was like a god damn psychic. 

She sat down in the bright pink camping chair and placed her hands awkwardly in her lap, not knowing what else to do. Why did it always get so awkward when Daryl was around. Was it her? Was it her that made everything so awkward? Maybe. 

"How's your brother, by the way?" She queried, genuinely interested. 

Daryl shrugged. "Like he always is." 

"What's that supposed to mean?" 

"You've met 'im. He's always like tha'." He explained and looked outside the tower, making sure that everything was normal - as normal as it can possibly be, that is. 

Robin nodded slowly. She couldn't imagine growing up with someone like Merle. "He's..."

"An asshole." He answered for her. 

She would've been shocked but could tell that Daryl thought it was difficult to have his brother back. She didn't think that he didn't want his brother back again, but she could tell that it has been difficult adjusting to having such a rough person around you again - especially when he thought Merle was dead.

"That's one way to put it." She croaked. 

Daryl shrugged it off and looked unbothered. "I'ss true. He's an asshole. Not sayin' anythin' that ain't true." 

Robin looked at Daryl and saw that he looked sad but was trying to hide it. "Just because he's a grade-A asshole doesn't mean you are, you know. You two are nothing alike, Daryl, if that's what you're wondering." If he had been close enough she might've grabbed his hand to comfort him. 

He stayed quiet, looking out the big window as the sun started to settle beneath the horizon. He blinked a couple of times and swallowed hard before saying, "I've missed you too." 

She didn't fully focus on what he said so at first she thought she heard him wrong but realized that she had heard him correctly when his cheeks started to redden. Yesterday she thought it might've been a mistake telling him that she's missed him by the way he reacted but now when he said that he's missed her too, it felt like the most right thing in the world. 

She wanted to smile really big but didn't want to come off as too happy so she gave him a small smile instead. "Really?" She didn't want to push it, but she just had to ask. She just had too.

Looking at her, he nodded. "Mhm." 

"Can I hug you again?" 

She wouldn't have asked if she didn't really want too, but she was over the moon that someone had thought about her. Being alone for so long with no one to share anything with was tough and it was easy to forget what having friends is like. So now, when she did have a friend it felt fantastic - even if that friendship was quite often awkward and she might have some weird feelings for him. 

"Yeah, I'd like that. You don't always have to ask, but thanks." He said, his voice gruff as usual. 

Standing up she walked over to him and gave him a big hug. His arms around her warmed her up nicely and his chest rose and fell in sync with hers. But everything comes to an end eventually and they let go of each other. She took a step back but was still very close to him. Their eyes locked together and she cherished his eyes. He always shields himself with his bangs so she's never been able to fully admire his blue eyes.

She could feel his breath against her face. Her lips were parted and her throat suddenly felt very dry. He looked at her with those kind eyes like he never intended to leave her side. Her hand searched for his and found it, gently taking a hold of it. His hand was much bigger than hers and basically engulfed hers. 

He licked his lips and she saw that he looked as nervous as she felt. 

Once again, you sometimes have to say fuck it. And that's what she did. She said fuck it and leaned in closer. He didn't back away, he didn't push her away, he stood rooted to the spot. 

She tilted her head up and slowly leant in for his lips. They quickly found each other and she kissed him. She kissed Daryl Dixon. Maybe it was a bad idea because Robin always fucks up in some way or another. And when he didn't respond or kiss her back she thought she fucked up everything she had with Daryl. That was until he kissed her back. 

She felt his lips respond against hers. It wasn't a very romantic kiss. It was more like a long peck on the lips. Robin wouldn't say that she was an experienced kisser but maybe more experienced than Daryl. She liked the kiss. Actually, she fucking loved the kiss. She loved the way his lips formed against hers and the way her chest pressed into his - even though it wasn't a very romantic kiss. 

They broke apart and she kept her eyes on the ground. Suddenly nervous about what he was going to do or say. Would he just up and leave like he had done yesterday? Or maybe he didn't like the kiss but didn't push her away because he didn't want to hurt her feelings. So many thoughts were flying around her brain before Daryl took her hand in his again. She looked up at him and was relieved when he didn't look upset. He didn't have any emotion on his face at all, really. 

She just kissed Daryl Dixon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm holding on to the 'slowburn' tag, just so u know. It ain't gonna be all sunshine and flowers~


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter, you'll get to know more about Robins first group she was with. It isn't very long but enough to get the picture.

She saw them first. They were sitting by the side of the road she's been following for hours. It was four guys and a woman. One of the men sat on a suitcase and had a water bottle in his hand. They were talking and hadn't seen her yet as she started to slowly approach them. 

"Quinn, you're a fucking tosser, you know that?" 

"Yeah, yeah, if you're jealous of me just say that, Kyson." 

Robin heard them as she got closer and her steps towards them slowed to a halt. "Hey." 

The woman quickly got behind one of the guys back. One of the boys, a tall lanky man jumped at the sound of her voice and a blonde guy reached for a knife in his belt. 

"Who are you?" He threatened her with his knife. 

She put her hands up to show them that she meant no harm but for the guy that was holding the knife it didn't seem to make much of a difference. "I'm Robin. I saw you guys and I... I don't have any weapons on me." 

A guy with pitch-black hair put a hand on the guy who was holding the knife's shoulder. "Quinn, she doesn't seem like the type to murder us." 

Quinn, however, shoved his hand off and squinted at her. "What do you want?" 

Robin looked around at the rest of the people and basically begged with her eyes for someone to get Quinn under control. She was scared, too. "I don't know what I want. I just... I don't know, Quinn!" 

"Don't say my name!" 

"What?" 

"Don't say my name you fucking who-" 

"Hey!" The black-haired guy shoved Quinn out of the way which caused him to stumble to the ground. "That's enough! She has no weapons, not even a bag and she hasn't done anything to raise suspicion." 

The girl who had hidden behind the boy peered over his shoulder, asking her for more details. "Are you on your own?" 

Robin nodded and told them that she has been wandering for shelter ever since everything started. 

"Well," the black-haired guy said, "I'm Jerome. This is Kyson," he pointed to the boy who had sat on the suitcase, "this is Brandon and Addia," he gestured to the girl and the boy she was hiding behind, "And this is... Quinn. Sorry for his... behaviour." 

"Fuck you, Jerome." He said as he got up from the ground and looked at his palms where small rocks had sunken into his skin after having supported his fall to the ground with his hands. "Not cool." 

"You kinda deserved it," Robin spoke, not faced by Quinn's facial expression. 

Brandon snorted and walked up to her, extending his hand. "Welcome to the group, Robin."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, I've been thinking that maybe instead of Daryl leaving with Merle (like he does in the series) I'll have the governor take him and Robin hostage and exploit the feelings they might have for each other. It would be angsty with some fluff thrown in there. If you're still reading it would be very nice to hear which you prefer. Thanks.


	19. Do you have a name, pretty thing?

Robin looked up at Daryl who was standing pressed up against the wall now. She was worried. He didn't let any emotions show. She had kissed him and he didn't say anything. What does that mean? Never have the person she kissed stayed dead silent afterwards before. 

Daryl was a person who didn't show much of anything. And she knew that when she kissed him he might not kiss her back, but he did. Maybe he was wondering why she kissed him. Because Robin started to feel guilty. She kissed him because she could. She liked him in a way that she wasn't ready for yet. How would that work? 

"Daryl?"

Without saying anything, he silently grabbed her hand and raised it to his lips, planting a soft kiss on the back of her hand. 

Robins's heart melted. She smiled at him, her cheeks turning red. Him kissing her hand felt more intimate than the actual kiss itself. Maybe because it was so purely made to show her that he was okay with it. 

"Hello?" The lady whose turn it was to keep watch basically kicked the door open and looked at them with raised eyebrows. "Mhm, okay, okay." 

Daryl promptly retreated and grabbed his crossbow. "Let's go." 

She trailed after him out of the tower and they almost ran up to the prison because of the chilly winter weather. They entered B-block and quickly warmed themselves up by grabbing the thin blankets that were laying around. 

"Who was that? I've never seen her around." 

Daryl rubbed his hands together to create warmth. "Her name's Alyssa. She's new, kinda. She ain't very keen on talkin'." 

Robin grinned, "Hmm, reminds me of someone I know." She teased and actually managed to get Daryl to smile. 

"Little brother! Where you been?" Merle announced himself and walked up to Daryl to swing an arm around his shoulder. 

She saw how uncomfortable Daryl looked at the closeness of his brother. maybe because he knew that Merle would say something stupid or inappropriate and he would feel guilty. 

"Been ou'side." He said shortly, taking off the blanket and threw it onto a table. He grabbed his crossbow and laid it next to the blanket. 

Merle glanced at Robin and smirked. "You look wet, darlin'." 

She didn't say anything. It wasn't worth it, she thought. No matter what she said to Merle, he always managed to throw back an inappropriate comment that would make her skin crawl. 

She heard how Daryl sighed. "Where you been, Merle?" He asked, probably to change the subject. 

Robin wondered what Daryl's big brother would say if he found out what had just happened between them. Probably say something vile and make them squirm. Would Daryl tell him? 

Deciding that it was best for her to leave before Merle says something else, she wrapped her blanket tighter around her and headed for her cell. 

~~~~

Rick, Michonne and Robin were talking about how else to defend the prison. It was boring to talk about it again. It felt like that was all they ever talked about these days. They had managed to get up a thick wall that made it look impenetrable when it wasn't, they found the gear that would protect a lot of them and weapons for the best shooters. 

Rick had told Robin that she had to learn how to use a gun correctly. At first, she was a bit annoyed that her archery wasn't good enough for him but then later realised it wasn't because he didn't think she was bad with a bow, but because the guns were easier to carry and could be hidden better than a bow. 

Glenn and Maggie often snuck off like a couple of teenagers and Beth and Carl spent a lot of time with Judith. Beth was like Judith's second mother, to be honest. 

Robin and Daryl had talked on occasions but never about what happened between them. Robin thought that maybe that was for the best. But another part of her wanted more of him. Guilt about past love was a tricky thing to handle when you met someone who makes you feel a certain way. 

She would admire him from afar and sometimes hoped that he would do the same to her. She would catch him talking to Merle and would hear him chuckle on rare occasions. Robin would smile at him when they passed each other and after a few times, he would smile back. 

And even though she liked the smiles and the admiring from afar her body yearned for more. She cherished every time he would walk up to her to talk about plans. And she loved it when he smiled at her because every time he smiled it reached his eyes. He seemed happy when he was around her - or happier, at least. 

~~~~

"Do you think it'll ever end?" Robin asked, looking out of the tower and spotting nothing but walkers. 

Glenn played absentmindedly with a knife and shrugged, "Don't know. But if it ever does, it won't be soon."

She turned to face him and studied him. He seemed very skittish this day. He hasn't been able to sit still and when you ask him something very simple he wouldn't know how to answer. It was very unlike Glenn to act this way and it made Robin tense. Glenn was the only other person she could talk to besides Daryl. And when he was like this, it was impossible to hold a conversation with him. Maybe he was just having a bad day.

"What's up with you, anyway?" 

He shook his head as if he tried to shake the question away. "Nothing. Everything's fine."

She puffed, causing Glenn to glare at her. "The Glenn I know don't pass up the opportunity to play 'how far can you spit'." She tried, hoping to maybe cheer him up.

"Well, maybe you just don't know me." He fired back.

Robin was taken aback by his comment and backed off. Something must really be bothering him. "Fine, be a dickhead for all I care."

He looked apologetically at her and buried his face in his hands, grunting very loudly. "I'm sorry. Been a weird day."

"Weird? Wanna tell me now?" She was nosy, but she felt if Glenn was acting like this it must be for a pretty big cause.

"Do you promise not to tell anyone?" 

Now she was really invested and nodded vigorously. "Yeah, of course."

He swallowed hard and ran his hand through his hair. "Maggie might be pregnant." 

Robins's mouth opened. She wanted to laugh at him. Maybe that was cruel but she couldn't imagine knocking someone up by accident in the middle of an apocalypse. Was it even by mistake? And then the serious thoughts came and she understood why Glenn would be worried and on edge. How would they care for another baby? Judith would be older when their baby would be born if Maggie now was pregnant. But another baby? How would that turn out? 

He winced and buried his face in his hands again when he saw Robins facial expression change from amused to seriously worried. He had probably hoped that she would try and console him and tell him that it would all be okay. But she couldn't when all she could think was bad things about it. 

"Well, that's not great." She said flatly. 

"Yeah, thanks." He sighed and shook his head absently. 

Robin smacked her lips and shrugged. "Well, you don't actually know that she's pregnant for certain, right?" 

Glenn shook his head again. "No." 

"See! Maybe a miracle will happen and it'll turn out that she isn't pregnant."

"Well, what if I want her to be?" He blurted out, looking at Robin with big eyes. His eyebrows were drawn together and his lips were now in a tight line. 

Robin looked away from him and stared into the wall. This wasn't exactly how she had planned on spending her watch time. She needed to be there for her friend but when it came to Maggie maybe being pregnant, it was hard to say something positive when all she could think was that it was a negative thing. 

She crossed her arms over her chest and sighed. "I mean if she is pregnant..." She looked him in the eyes and smiled, "you two would be excellent parents." It was true, they would be the best parents a kid could ever ask for. They had that going for them, at least.

He looked relieved at her response and his shoulders relaxed. Rubbing his eyes, he then slapped his hands on his thighs. "It will be alright!" He chirped, it was probably to reassure himself, though.

"It will be alright." She repeated.

Taking a seat next to her friend, she patted him on the shoulder and smiled at him. Glenn was a funny man. He was very underrated too, she had noticed. There was nothing he wouldn't do for his people and it showed. The time they had spent together they would talk about the weird stuff they had to do to survive. Him also being a former pizza delivery guy seemed to help them as he was oddly good at navigating through the streets. 

"How is Daryl?" 

She turned her head in his direction, a confused expression on her face. "Why would you ask me that?" 

He smirked, not looking at her but straight ahead instead. "You've been spending a lot of time together, that's all."

"No, we haven't" She denied, looking straight ahead, too, to look unbothered.

"Yeah, you have. Rick had noticed it, too." 

Breaking the 'unbothered' facade, she stared at him. "What? What do you mean?"

Glenn grinned, itching his scalp. "He's noticed your weird... looks."

Robin looked away, embarrassed that she knew exactly what he meant. Maybe she hadn't been so discreet, after all. She blushed, Rick noticing her looking at Daryl that way was embarrassing for so many reasons. It didn't make it better that Glenn was now giggling like a little girl. "What?"

"Nothing. It's just that seeing you blush, oh, it's wonderful." He chorused. 

"Shut up." Looking away from him, she tried to hide her reddened cheeks. She's been through a lot of embarrassing things but this is one of the top ones. Having Glenn tease her and that Rick has noticed isn't a very great thing. What would Rick think? And why was she worried about what Rick was thinking? Had Rick told someone else? Had someone else noticed her looking at Daryl like she yearned for something much more? 

"So, where do you stand?" 

Groaning, she said, "What do you mean?"

"Come on. Everyone knows this! You have to know where you stand. Like, stand with Daryl." Robin groaned again, "Are you guys at the denial stand?"

"'The denial stand'? What the hell does that mean?" 

"Oh my- Okay. It's obvious that you like him and that he likes you-" Robin blushed again, "but are you denying it?"

"I'm not denying anything, Glenn. I don't - I don't feel anything for him more than a friend does. And even if I did have any... romantic feelings towards him, I wouldn't be ready to... to move on." She admitted, her voice fading out. It was painful just thinking about the man she had lost. She always became upset that she and he met during the apocalypse and not before. She wanted, needed, more time with him. But she lost him just like she lost everyone else. And it hurt too much. 

Glenn got quiet when he saw Robins face. She wanted to tell him to fuck off for making her think of him again. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair that someone who is gone is still hurting you. Hurting you just by thinking about them. But this world took people out like they meant nothing. Like the people roaming the earth still was nothing but dust that could just be swept away. 

If she would've been alone she might've cried. The tears would've fallen for all of her friends that died so tragically. Because when she gets sad about one thing, everything she has tried to push away just comes forth. It was very painful to be human sometimes. 

"I should get back to my cell." She said after they had sat in silence for several minutes.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

She stopped him and forced a smile. "Don't worry. It's fine. Goodnight." 

Climbing down the tower she stopped for a second to just inhale the cold air, hoping that it would push away the tears that she was so close to shedding. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She angled her face up towards the black sky and just breathed. Because breathing is something that living people have to do and she had to keep on living even when everything felt impossible. 

Everything was peaceful. Everything was peaceful for just a second before she heard the walkers outside the fence. Walkers still existed, and it made Robin furious.

~~~~

"Alright, Michonne and Maggie will go to the pharmacy we found yesterday," Rick announced, going through a list that he had written for the day. "Beth will help Carol with the last few walkers out by the gates and Daryl and Robin will go south huntin'. Does that sound like a plan?"

Everyone agreed to the terms and went their separate ways. Robin went to retrieve her bow and arrows in her bunk. She was suspicious that Rick might've put her and Daryl together because he thinks she fancies him in some way but tried to push the suspiciousness away for now.

They exited the prison together and started heading south. 

She tried to take even steps with him. He looked around for any animals wandering about in the forest. He had his crossbow at the ready and a pack of arrows. She noticed how long his hair had gotten and how he had started to initiate a conversation with her even though sometimes it felt very awkward for both of them. 

"Look!" He whispered, pointing towards a deer in the distance.

Robin took her bow and aimed it at the deers head. She took a deep breath and was just about to fire the arrow when the deer dropped down to the ground. She looked at it confused before she realised that it was Daryl who had killed it.

"I could've done it." She said, half-annoyed half-amused. 

He smirked and quirked an eyebrow which made her smile. He went to get the deer. 

Snow had started to fall slowly from the clouds and the wind was piercing their skin. The leaf-less trees were swaying as strong gusts of wind washed over them. The people who were hunting had gotten thicker jackets and better boots to keep the warmth. The jacket was a size too small for Robin but it still zipped up and did its job which was to protect her from the wind. 

She stepped over a branch and walked over to Daryl who was inspecting the deer. "What do- Ow! Shit!" A stinging sensation spread through her thigh. In a panic, she looked for the spot where it stung the most and found a dart. "What the fuck?" 

Daryl put his hand on her thigh and looked at it and without saying anything he pulled it out. Robin swore again and winced as the stinging got worse. Daryl looked at her eyes. "Robin?"

Her vision blurred as she tried to focus on the man standing in front of her. She heard him shout her name but couldn't quite make out the rest of the words that came out of his mouth. She was swaying when she heard other voices. She fell over, landing on her back with a loud thud. She could still see the trees swaying as she heard Daryl call her name for the last time before she passed out. 

~~~~

Footsteps. She heard footsteps. A door opening and dragging. In what sounded very far away, she heard grunting. Voices, several of them surrounded her. It sounded like mumbling and nothing around her was making any sense. Her scalp prickled. Her head was thrown back with such force that her neck made a cracking noise. Her eyes were still closed; it felt like someone had tied rocks to them which forced them shut. 

Her cheek stung as she felt a hand connect with it. She heard another voice. It sounded like yelling. Slowly, things started to get clearer along with her mind. 

Another smack.

This time, she winced. She winced and tried to shield her face with her hands but found out that they were stuck to the chair she was sitting in. She forced herself to open her eyes. It was blurry at first but her vision gradually cleared up. She saw a man standing in front of her, his nose almost touching hers. 

"Well, hello." The man in front of her said although it had felt as though he had yelled.

She winced again, and tried to free her hands but to no avail. Looking at her hands she saw that they were stuck to metal bars. She panicked and frantically tried to free her hands by shaking the metal bars. The man yelled at her to stop and when she didn't he grabbed her face and stared at her.

"I told you to stop." 

Robin breathed heavily, but stopped and looked away from his gaze. He seemed satisfied and moved out of her way, letting her get a better look at the place. The first thing she noticed was that it was the same room that Andrea had died in. There was still blood on the wall to prove it. 

The man, who she could only assume was the governor, paced around the room, his hands behind his back. After a while, he turned to her. His eyes had a sickening look. A look that can't be described but only felt. 

"You wanna tell me your name, pretty thing?" His voice was laced with poison, she could feel it on her skin. When she didn't answer he chuckled. "Didn't you hear me? I asked you a question."

Looking around for a possible exit, she tried to keep her eyes off of him. He felt sickening to look at. She heard him getting closer but she kept her eyes averted. He grabbed her face again and forced her to look at him.

"You don't want to anger me. Now answer my question. What's your name?" 

She swallowed and resisted the urge to spit on him. "Robin." 

He let go of her face. "Ah, what a beautiful name you have, Robin." He sang as he walked over to a table. 

"Where is he? Do you have him?" She asked, feeling braver.

"Have who?" He asked innocently. 

Robin saw him pick up a scalpel from the table he was standing at. Her heart dropped and she tugged at her hands. "Daryl. Is he here? Did you take him too?" 

He gasped and looked at her understandably. "Ah, him. Yes, we have him."

Sweat had started to bead on her forehead and her hands felt clammy. Tears threatened to leak when he stepped closer to her with the scalpel in his hand.

"Do you want to see him?" 

Robin stayed quiet. It was probably the nerves and the fact that she was almost shitting her pants that made her unable to speak. She wasn't sure if he was trying to fool her, either. Philip just smiled as he whistled towards the door. It flew open and in walked a man with a big gun and behind him another man dragged Daryl by his arms. She saw that his hands were tied together, too. 

She whimpered when she saw him. He had a bloody nose and his eyes were frantic. She felt even more helpless than before when she saw that the two men were tying his hands to a metal bar, making him unable to move barely at all. He was forced to stand up and he looked scared. Maybe he was scared for her. 

The governor chuckled and shook his head. "Daryl, it's great to see you again. I missed you. You just up and left with your brother, leaving me behind. That wasn't very nice." Daryl didn't say anything back, which Robin thought was smart but Philip didn't seem to like it at all. "I need to ask you something. I'm sure my men asked you this question before, but you were unwilling to cooperate so I'll ask you instead. What are your plans for overthrowing me? I really need to know if I'm going to defeat your people." He said, teasing Daryl. 

Robin sat in the chair looking from Daryl to Philip. She was afraid about what he would do to Daryl if he didn't cooperate this time. It was scary to watch something so brutal unfold and you can't do anything about it. Helping him wasn't even a possibility at this point, so Robin just sat there, doing what she did best in this scenario: be silent. 

"Daryl. Tell me what you've gathered so far. What kind of weapons do you have? What kind of protection?" He probed, walking closer to him with the scalpel. 

"I ain't gonna tell you shit." He spat, breathing hard. It made the men that were standing next to him shift as if they were getting ready to beat him up. However, the governor shooed the out of the room. 

"Is that so?" Philip mused. He stepped closer to Daryl and gingerly ran the scalpel down his face. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" 

She heard Daryl exhale when he put down the scalpel. "I ain't goin' to tell you anythin'." 

Philip nodded thoughtfully and quickly turned on his heel, now with his eyes on Robin. He played with the sharp object in his hands as he walked up behind her. Her heart was racing, she made eye contact with Daryl and his eyes were filled with worry. 

She gasped when she felt the man behind her grasp her hair and slice through it. The scalpel had some difficulty cutting off her thick hair but he managed to chop it all off after a couple of minutes. Tears were now flowing down her cheeks, not because she had lost her hair but because she knew that this was only the beginning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, I went through the previous chapters and I noticed that I said that Merle was dead... Uhmmm, so change of plans, obviously lmfao.


End file.
